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Originally Posted by local 392

Your problem should not be trying to half-ass a repair do to someone elses screwup. Bid the job to redo the duct the right way. Then repair the blower, make life easer on yourself. My luck would be tell the customer I can cut a hole to access the motor then mess up the wheel. Then try to explain to the customer why he now has to pay to redo the duct.

Good advice. Do it right!

Your problem should not be trying to half-ass a repair do to someone elses screwup. Bid the job to redo the duct the right way. Then repair the blower, make life easer on yourself. My luck would be tell the customer I can cut a hole to access the motor then mess up the wheel. Then try to explain to the customer why he now has to pay to redo the duct.

Someone told me today to try removing the belly band and the wheel itself will move enough to get access. I dont buy it, especially with my gorilla hands.

Cut duct and reinstall with canvas peice to make quick work next time

Just remove the duct. It's usually not as difficult as you might think. Bite the bullet and "getter done"!

Originally Posted by timjimbob

No reason not to cut access hole in cabinet, if you want. Won't hurt.

Often wonder why there is no hand hole access to blowers using new electronic ECM motors. Had to change just the electronc s mounted at the end of the motor. Why should it take 30 minutes to pull a blower just to troubleshoot when you could reach in the access hole and be done in 5 minutes.

If I have a choice of which side I bring the return air into it's always to the motor side. There goes the factory hand hole access.

I'll take having to remove a blower assembly any day compared to how hard it is to get to some of the old ignitors and how many (were installed with no thought about having to be removed) items had to be moved just to get my hand near it.

No reason not to cut access hole in cabinet, if you want. Won't hurt.

Often wonder why there is no hand hole access to blowers using new electronic ECM motors. Had to change just the electronc s mounted at the end of the motor. Why should it take 30 minutes to pull a blower just to troubleshoot when you could reach in the access hole and be done in 5 minutes.

Originally Posted by Snapperhead

I did one this summer , same scenereo , no room to get blower out .

I just looosened blower assembly ,let it fall into the bottom of cabinet , then layed on my side and reached inside cabinet to work to remove motor.

What a pain in the ass that was

How do you do this when the blower assembly is on a rail/slide in type? It has one direction, slides out the front, not back, not down, and of course not up.

Normally when you see crap like this its when the lowest bidder got the job. You get called out because the customer got a disconnected message when they tried to call the original installer back..

just cut the duct out of the way

if it's easy access to back side for set screw hole- knock your self out.

but:
1-crap like that should have never been installed

2-apparently the "codes" there don't cover or define easy access

3-find what ever butt head put that in and try to beat some understanding into them

Thanks all. I'll try to get some pictures today.

No thoughts on making a 10x6 access hole in the back of the cabinet so I can reach the collar on the blower motor?

send duct designer/installer to replace fan and do duct mods.
then fire said individuals.
that would be too easy i guess. how about a modular blower assembly flipped on the outlet side of the ahu? if it would be service accessible. sometimes you gotta think out of the box.

I did one this summer , same scenereo , no room to get blower out .

I just looosened blower assembly ,let it fall into the bottom of cabinet , then layed on my side and reached inside cabinet to work to remove motor.

What a pain in the ass that was

The way most furnace blowers are set up, getting the blower to slide out the back would be quite difficult

It's tough without pics, but could you cut a section of duct and re-fit so it could be taken in and out with relative ease in the future?

Post pics on WOS?

Is it in a attic, crawl space, mechanical room or closet? Describe the install a little better. Pictures would help a ton!

Over the summer, I had a 2 year old 3 ton split with a faulty TXV. Problem was that you couldn't access the coil at all. So, I quoted the customer to remove the AHU, replaced TXV, and then reinstall with correct service access. We got the job.

No room to remove blower motor

We have an air handler installed with the ductwork 12 inches from the access panel. Because its so close, the blower assembly cannot be removed and there is no way to sneak around to loosen the collar on back of the cage.

I want to avoid removing the section of duct so the next best thing is to cut hole in rear panel then cover with ductmate sandwich door.

I'd like to get some other ideas. Help !!

Anthony