Carrier Vertical Fan Coil - Ruined??

[John_]

Hi, All - I'm new to the forum after searching for one that looked good. I live in an apartment in a building with a vertical fan coil on the floor and against the wall. Although I couldn't find a model #, I feel about 99.99% sure it has to be a version of the Carrier 42V Airstream model shown here:

http://www.commercial.carrier.com/co..._PRD66,00.html

Documents here:

http://www.commercial.carrier.com/co..._PRD66,00.html

Closest match is the 42VBA02:

http://www.docs.hvacpartners.com/idc...42vb-202-1.pdf

The only difference I can tell between the one I'm using and the 42VBA02 specs graphic is that the one in my apartment is ~33 1/2" for the "A" dimension of the cabinet instead of 41. Since I can't find that "A" length listed anywhere, I'm guessing that just maybe what I really have is some kind of older model for which they don't have a drawing available online - perhaps it's really a 42VBA01 or something.

Well, recently it developed a situation where it sounded like metal was grinding against metal. I hadn't seen inside it then, so I assumed it was just a fan hitting against something. Someone came to fix that, and now it appears that the whole thing is rather ruined. You see, prior to this, when you put it on medium or low, it had a nice soft "white noise" kind of noise that you could go to bed with. Now, although the "metal on metal" sound is not an issue, it has a rumble that's too loud and has basically ruined a lot about the unit that made it pretty good in that area.

After getting a look inside, this appears to be related to either the motor, fan or both. I think what I had thought was a metal fan on metal was really the motor shaking too much and hitting against something inside, but you also have the issue of the stem going from the motor to the fan coil not appearing to spin straight enough, and seeming perhaps to also cause a kind of rumble within the spinning fan itself, which seems like it might be mostly plastic, or housed in something mostly plastic unless I'm mistaken.

Ironically, it used to be that putting it on High was just a bit too rumbly, although perhaps a few years prior to that the High setting was also quite desirable. Switching to Medium or Low was good, though. Now, however, putting it on high sometimes seems to "straighten out" the rumbling after a while, but after you switch down to Medium or Low the rumble returns and gets quite unpleasant and a real problem for night time, and keeping it on high all the time does not appear to be an option either.

I don't have any confidence whatsoever in asking for help with it again here at the building, but I also wouldn't really know for sure what to do about this myself and am reluctant make any attempts which could only really be experimental. On the other hand, if there is some really simple option out there I would certainly appreciate someone letting me know. I've also wondered about having just the motor and fan part replaced myself if possible, but I'd rather not even have to deal with attempting that under the circumstances. At this point I'm thinking I may even have to move to a new place entirely, but I'd really rather just have it back the way it was before the whole thing started.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance if anyone has any insights to share.