troubleshooting my suburban 40k btu heater

RickB · May 16, 2009, 06:34:24 AM

Hey folks,

One of my suburban heaters started acting up recently. When it kicks in it make a noise that sounds like the fan has lost a bearing or a squirrel cage is hitting something as it spins. Are these things hard to take apart and diagnose? I may wait until winter to fix it but considering there is a frost warning this evening maybe not.

Have any of you had this happen to your suburban heater??

Thanks in advance,
Rick

WEC4104 · May 16, 2009, 07:00:10 AM

Rick:
I haven't ever performed the Suburban surgery, but from prior web searchs I have the following site that I found. I have no connection with them, and have never ordered from them, but they have a pretty comprehensive parts listing with photos and pricing of Suburban parts. Though this might come in handy...
http://www.marksrv.com/suburbanparts.htm

RickB · May 16, 2009, 08:06:02 AM

Thanks,

Now why isn't camping world that helpful... or simple. Thanks again for the info.

Rick

luvrbus · May 16, 2009, 09:16:55 AM

Wow Rick 97 degrees here in AZ and you talking about frost warning sounds good to me
good luick

JohnEd · May 16, 2009, 11:08:29 AM

I can share one thing I did that seems logical but did not work. I found that if I oiled the brass bushing it quieted right down. The noise returned with a vengeance at a later date and I cured it the same way....HIGH quality special purpose oil. Screamed a week later. The oil was a vegetable base and it hardened in a few days to something like tar. Real spendy, too.

You can probably find the failed bushings in a "Small Motor" repair shop. You might also want to make inquiry about "thrust" washers at that shop.

HTH,

John

PP · May 16, 2009, 04:48:31 PM

Rick,
I had the same thing happen in my 5th wheel several years ago before the advent of the bus. I did the cheap and cheerful thing first-I greased the brass bushing on the motor. (I see I'm not the only poor boy in the neighborhood-JohnEd) Lasted about a week and was a pain to get into. When the noise returned with a vengeance, I pulled the motor and replaced it. Cost was almost $100. but it never squeaked again and the next owner never complained about it. He did complain about a lot of other things, but never the furnace. Good luck, Will

JohnEd · May 16, 2009, 06:16:09 PM

SMALL ELECTRIC MOTOR REPAIR SHOP!!!!!!!!

Airbag · May 16, 2009, 08:19:45 PM

The motors are not to hard to replace and run about $100 to $150. My heater I rebuilt and it is much older than yours here is a link with some pictures. Once replaced it will give many years of service. The bearings in those motors are oilite bushing material meaning oil impregnated bronze and the only way to get a lasting lube job is to remove them and soak in very hot oil. Your best bet is to replace the motor.

I had great luck with Mark's RV for parts.

Best of luck.

http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=10975.msg115566#msg115566

junkman42 · May 17, 2009, 04:40:50 AM

Right on Airbag. The oil of choice would be 30 weight oil and preferably non detergent. Never use the spray stuff particularly WD-40. Using the penetrating spray oils will make the motor run like hell for a little and then shortly complete motor bearing failure. My take, john