Back Drying -- For Now

     The replacement fan impeller for my dryer arrived Friday.  I'm not terribly superstitious, but I was tired; I waited until Saturday to install it.

     The project didn't start well.  I assumed I needed to remove the drum, and when I got that far, I found that I didn't remember how.  There's a little trick to it.  Checking with an online repair video -- definitely not AI -- I learned the drum stays put for a fan replacement.  I rethreaded the belt (I'll be back to that) and took the front off the fan housing, a half-dozen sheet metal screws.  Sure enough, the fan had broken all around the hub, as expected.  I still needed to remove a a lint and hair ball, a circlip and a round spring clamp.  The fuzz took a lot of work with regular needlenose pliers; it was really compressed.  For the next step, I could have sworn I had circlip pliers, but apparently I do not.

     You can use tiny round-needlenose pliers to remove a circlip, but the task requires patience.  The clip tends to slip off the tapering round jaws.  It took me five tries.  (And knowing the ways of circlips, I'd ordered a new one; in fact, I paid more for the parts because the cheaper places didn't stock them.)  Somehow the thing did not fly away to Parts Unknown.  The clamp is easy; it's got three "ears" that stick up, two on one side and on on the other, and you just grab them with a pair of pliers and lift it off the hub.  The hub came off in pieces and the rest of the fan followed.  I used a cloth to remove the big chunks of lint and plastic and vacuumed the rest out before starting to install the new impeller.

     It wouldn't go on.  The shaft is D-shaped and everything needs to be lined up just right -- but it wouldn't go on even then.  It started and then stuck. I pried it off and cleaned the motor shaft with a rag.  It didn't help much.  I took it back off and cleaned up sprue around the opening with my pocket knife.  That worked a little better, but it didn't go far when I started it on the motor shaft..

     The instruction video had listed a deep-well 9/16" socket and a soft-headed hammer, showing how to tap the impeller in place.  I had them sitting ready, and proceeded to carefully apply force, expecting the worst.

     Nope.  Bit by bit, whack by whack, the impeller settled home.  I installed the new spring clamp around the hub, and then tackled the circlip.  It isn't any easier to use the wrong tool to install them than to remove them; after six tries, I got it about three-quarters engaged and popped it the rest of the way into the groove.

     From that point, reassembly is, as they say, the opposite of disassembly: cover, brace, feet (the fan cover fastens to the bottom of the chassis at two points), then the front goes back on, two clips at the base that fit into slots, re-installation of the door switch in its holder, two sheet-metal screws at the top to hold the front to the sides (making sure the alignment pins are in their corresponding holes). Next, the wiring goes back in its clips and the top is lowered and latched.

     Tam came downstairs for the plugging in, exhaust-duct connection and, at last, the test run.  I set the dryer to run without heat and pushed the start button.

     It ran, and we looked at each other.  Whattaya know!  "Tam, keep an eye on it.  I'm going to check the exhaust opening."

     Outside, the little louvers had popped up, and there was a scattering of plastic fragments in the flowerbed, the same color as the broken fan.  Clean air was coming out of the vent.  I yelled, "It looks okay," into it and came back inside.  We watched the dryer run a little while longer.  It was...mostly smooth.

     Mostly.  There's a little vibration and rumble.  You can't see the drive pulley (it's on the back of the motor that the fan is on the front of) without removing the drum, but when I restrung the belt, it felt a little rough.  So I'm pretty sure that's going to be the next project.  I vacuumed a lot of drive-belt particles from the bottom of the dryer, too.

     Today, I'm on the third load of drying, and the machine is still running and still rumbling -- no worse, but no better, either.  I think I'm going to skip machine-drying my tennis shoes for awhile; even with pillows along for the ride,* they thump around pretty hard, and the drive pulley is the same decades-old plastic as the fan impeller.
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* This is the best trick I know for washing trainers: add a pair of pillows!  They keep action in the washer from becoming too chaotic, cushion the leaping-around in the dryer, and it fluffs your pillows at the same time!  But it's a lot of mass in motion with the shoes alone, and when you add wet pillows (washer) or damp ones (dryer) as well, it's a lot of load.  If things are going to break, that's going to make it happen sooner.