How "free" does the HV battery fan squirrel cage rotate? What have I done?

If you look at the fan correctly you'll see some squeeze tabs that you undo with like a pin or a small pry bar I mean like microscopic like the one that comes in my soldering welding kit and the fan lifts right off of the shaft the motor shaft I have them separated all over the place here then you can put the fan the white part in the dishwasher if you want top rack maybe not let it go through the dry cycle but I don't even think that'll hurt it then you snap it back on the shaft of the motor and it should spin but it doesn't spin like an abec 8 bearing You can actually hear the rotor of the motor turning in the housing and feel it in your hand when you spin the squirrel cage which is the fan

 

What you should do before you do anything else is plug it up turn on the thing commanded up with tech to see if it spins without making a rattling noise or you can just put juice to the terminals if you have a way to get it to the terminals to the plastic plug assembly then hold it in your hand and see if it spins without making them fluttering or rattling noise You generally don't want to feed on the shaft of a motor an electric motor but oh well it's only about $23 You don't buy a Toyota one fan motors or a dime a dozen for a lot of aftermarket companies nothing special

 

It's not a clip it's built into the end of the sand impeller let me see I'm going to go out and look in the shop right now It's like two little split pieces of plastic that are made into the fan impeller and you kind of spread them apart and lift up on the impeller and off it comes You don't have to do anything to reinsert it onto the shaft You just push it down until it clicks and then you try to pull it up and it won't come off until you spread those two tabs again they're very small You see how small the shaft is so you can imagine the locking tabs around the hole of the impeller very small You could probably use a t90 pair of electricians or electronics very pointed needle nose to spread the impeller plastic pieces apart I'll have to try that next time it'll sure make it easier I bet

 

I'm looking down the whole of the Gen 3 case mounted fan right now and I believe this is the same setup that the generation 2 has It's just not screwed to the fan tray It's mounted there in the rear quarter panel but it's basically the same housing and I'm looking at the little tabs you push in and then you pull up on the impeller when the case halves are split and all she comes No reason to be hitting on anything generally speaking

 

i've never spun one, but squirrel cage fans usually spin free and easy

 

These do not, possibly though because the ones I was looking at were 15 years old at the time. The one in our 2007 and another from the junk yard will make maybe one full turn before stopping if spun with a finger or pencil. At least the one in our 2007 still works, which may just indicate that the motor is sufficiently powerful to spin despite the drag.

The "dirt" that fell out of the one in the OP's post may have been graphite. Was it very black? Graphite wears off the brushes and accumulates inside the unit. Turn the unit upside down (motor axle straight up and down, cage below it) and shake a bit and this graphite will fall out and make a mess on the underside of the cage.

Tombuk2, please take a picture that shows how to removed the cage. It looks to me like it is press fit onto the shaft. There are 4 screws on the black part of the case. Taking out the 3 with torx heads didn't release anything. I think that taking out the 4th one (Philips head) near the shaft probably lets the back part of the motor slide out of the black case, with a bit of prying. I keep forgetting to try that. I'm hoping that at that point it might be possible to replace the brushes and lube the bearings, to restore one of these motors to its original condition. If it cannot come out, a drop or two of oil down the exposed shaft at the back should reach that bearing, but not the front bearing.

 

Okay I'll get on it and try to post it I went out and looked at the fan last night I have one attached to a generation 3 case and I believe I still have a Gen 2 laying here with the plastic case still around it I took it apart to clean it Wash it in the dishwasher the plastic pieces and put it back together so I had the impeller off and it just slid right off spreading these little plastic tabs that are on the very top of the fan on the hole that drops on to the motor shaft on the plastic fan itself this clip does not come off You're just spreading these two little slots that are cut out in the plastic they're molded this way I guess I use two little flat weller soldering tools. And just lift up on the plastic and shake it and the motor weight pulls it right through and the motor drops onto the table or whatever and I'm holding just the plastic round squirrel cage with all the angled pieces of plastic that blow the air I throw that in the dishwasher along with the case have I'll try and make a video or a picture and figure out where to post it or something

 

I took apart the junkyard one as far as I could. The top white plastic piece (the one furthest from the motor) was removed first, but that isn't necessary. Then removed all 5 screws in the black plastic piece. Used a handle puller (for pulling handles off of faucets) to push the motor out of the black case. Put the tip on the end of the shaft, the clamps just under the black piece, and turned the handle until the motor fell out. The cage is still firmly affixed to the motor though, and I don't see any way to drop the innards of the motor out of the case. In some of the pictures the graphite brushes and the felt oil washer for the back bearing (greenish) are visible. Everything is on newspaper because graphite was falling out all over the place.

Oiling the back bearing (zoom oiler) didn't make much difference in how freely it spun.

Edit: it might be possible to oil the front bearing, but it would be blind. With the motor in the position shown, stick the tube for a zoom oiler in between the white plastic case and the motor and feel around for the shaft, place some oil on it, then turn the motor over and let the oil drip down onto the bearing and hopefully the felt washer. Much better if the plastic could be released, giving much better access to the brushes and that bearing.

 

No slots that fit that description on this motor. The only slots at all are the two where the contacts for the motor go through the black plastic.

 

The gen 3 you'll see the little tabs more pronounced on top of the white plastic squirrel cage so once you remove the upper portion of the outer cover and you can squeeze those the impeller or the squirrel cage lifts right up and you throw it in the sink and the back of the white cover and the motor silver shaft you drop on the bench unless you just want the back cover to be as clean as the front white cover just because then you'll take it off The impeller on the generation 2 is much more difficult to see what it is you're pulling apart You're just spreading these two tabs and lifting up.

 

I'm holding the two fan in my hand right now and I just took a picture of the part that looks like a cone that has the five big holes in it and the shaft goes through the center of that If you look at that carefully if you had a tool that removes various things the size of the shaft it could slide over impossibly spread the two little doodads that look like they're holding the fan on I just used a pic or two pics or two weller soldering red handle like pics and spreaders spread it and actually lift it up on it and the fan came right off I'm holding the one that I cleaned and thought I was going to reuse and I realize now I'll probably never use it it's just been sitting here and I'm getting ready to pull the impeller off again by spreading this little white plastic tab that I know I didn't create in the thing was there when I got it and when I move this to the side you can push the impeller shaft right through the squirrel cage and throw it right in the sink and there it goes off it is and I'm holding it.

 

No I'm doing all this from the front and I'm not disassembling the motor or the back half which is the motor side of the white fan case I just spray it off but the front half of the case in the squirrel cage blower goes in the dishwasher well here at my house it does and to get that off I pride apart this little tab that's very precision cut into the blower wheel If you take a picture of it and blow it up and look at it real good I hope everybody sees what I'm talking about You could take an exacto knife and stick it in one of the slots that's cut for this tab and just twist it like you're lifting up on something and you'll see this little tab lift up doesn't have to lift up very far thousands of an inch or so then use your thumb to push down on what little of the shaft is sticking through the impeller and you'll see it move now you've moved it enough where you can let go of your exacto knife and just put your fingers underneath the squirrel cage and lift it up plump there it is I'm standing here staring at this one right now You can see where I put my exacto knife in one of the slots and lifted the thing out least that's what I think happened I know I took it off put it in the dishwasher cleaned it put it back on It's aligned with the flat like it's supposed to be and it just drops on and goes to a certain point but it doesn't click because it's not hard plastic It's kind of soft so it doesn't make any noise and that's it no problem every one of these that's dirty like this I do the same way I've never pulled the motor out of the casing or undo the silver screws on the back motor side of this assembly never ever I just throw that out and grab another one if the motor doesn't work or if there's any questions and none of them spend freely they might make a revolution if you whiz the hell out of it with your hand but not likely it'll make one turn and stop and that's perfect All of them are like that I don't care if you push down on the impeller or pull out on it doesn't matter once the fan is running it settles into where it is so hook it up to some juice while you're holding it in your hand hold it upside down right side up and sideways and you'll see what I'm talking about everything should be kosher

 

Ditto.

Tombuk2, it would really be helpful to have a picture showing how to disassemble this part. Because it looks to me like the motor shaft is press fit into the "double rook cylinder" structure, possibly while the cylinder has been heated quite a bit so that it will expand. The part of the shaft that sticks out of the cylinder on the junk yard one has a good layer of surface rust, which would make the plastic cylinder difficult to remove even if we knew the original assembly conditions and tried to reverse them.

One other factoid, using a multimeter, there is electrical conductivity (roughly zero Ohms) from one end of the shaft to the other, but "infinite" resistance between the shaft and the metal case of the motor. That suggests the shaft is just that, a shaft, and not something more complicated. Well, it might not be perfectly cylindrical everywhere.

 

I'm going to try to figure out how to post a picture here in a little bit I'll set up the thing lift up on it pull it halfway off the shaft and take a picture with the exacto knife blade still in its position so you can see where I've stuck it I don't think I damaged anything as far as I can tell this is what I'm supposed to be doing