| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_weiss |
Fan died last week. No warning at all. Stopped for lunch, fan ran. 30 minutes later stopped for fuel. No fan. On restart, CEL was on. Replaced blown fuse and it immediately blew again. Once home, peered in and could not see anything amiss. Tried to turn the fan and found that it was locked up very solidly. With the new fan in hand, I set about replacement. This is what I found:  If it had turned a little bit further and it would have popped past the grille. It is a piece of foam. Packing peanut? Who knows? I did consider leaving the grille off, but there's probably a good reason for it's existence. Even with the foam piece removed, the fan turned only with a great deal of force. I found the old fan very reluctant to depart the frame. LOTS of jiggling, sliding, shaking, and walking away a couple of times. The new fan slid right in. The only gotcha that I came across was that I nearly trapped the O2 sensor lead between the frame and the fan. Mark SE AZ | ||
| Teeps |
The guard is there for the same reason any fan has a guard. With the comfort kit shroud in place, the guard is superfluous. I will leave it off, my Uly, when/if the fan fails... | ||
| Petebueller |
I end up with heaps of peanuts lying around near the bikes. I'll have to keep an eye on that. The 1125 doesn't have a grille - wonder if that better or worse. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I went back and forth on that. While the shroud would certainly reduce the likelihood of something dropping in from above, when I return from an off-pavement adventure (especially when it's wet) there's an amazing amount of mud & such under the fender. Frequently, even the shock is coated. With no recent off-roading, there was still a fair collection of small gravel and sand up there. Based on that, I leaned toward retaining the guard. I am considering putting screens into the cooling scoops though. Mark SEAZ | ||
| Uly_man |
The "locked fan via rubbish" is something I have seen before. Not common though. I get a lot of gravel/sand on top of the the rear fender/tyre guard all the time. I also get a lot of water on my back, up to my neck, on wet roads. I have a full tail tidy though which may not help the situation any. (Message edited by uly_man on December 25, 2010) | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
It's really hard for me to believe that a little chunk of styrofoam could take out such a big motor. I would think it would grind it up like nuthin'. Perhaps the motor died and then the crap got sucked in there? Not cause and effect??? | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Surprised me too. If it wasn't for the 30 minute gap between working and not-working, and the fact that there were never any odd noises at all, I'd think the same. The foam chunk was fairly dense and wedged up against the wire edge of the grille. Maybe the chunk blew in there while riding and prevented the fan from being able to start up? Maybe the foam got caught in the position that it is shown and just added drag to the fan. Enough drag for the fan to overheat & fail? Noting that it's trapped by the trailing edge of the fan blade, the foam would have wedged tighter and tighter as the fan rotated. I did pry the fan motor open, it was really severely cooked inside. The lacquer on the armature windings was bubbled and blackened. Smelled bad too. Mark (Message edited by Mark_Weiss on December 28, 2010) | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I mean from the crazy sound it makes, it sounds like it would chop carrots like a Cuisinart! When you took it apart, did you see if it had brushes? Any gory pics of the horrid interior of the dead motor? | ||
| Mark_weiss |
The fan motor is a VERY well sealed unit. Not designed to ever be opened. It is a brush type motor. Ball bearing at the fan end. Didn't take any photos, maybe it's still in the trash... | ||
| Uly_man |
If the fan is stuck or the bearing is seized and there is no overload device then the windings can heat up and short out. The fuse may not always blow either. The fan is of a common automotive design much like the A/C condenser fan on a car. Its designed for speed and not torque/load which is why it can lock so easy. The only reason I can think of as to why it has that top L/H section of the grill missing is to allow rubbish to pass through the fan system so that it does not lock it up. |
