I recently replaced the blower in an Alpha 87A. The procedure is well
documented by Brian, N9ADG:
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Amps/2011-12/msg00217.html
Instead of disassembling the old blower, I applied two drops of "3 in 1" oil to
both the front and rear ends of the shaft. On 240 volts, the blower quickly
came back to normal from the loud squeaky sound it had been making. After
several hours, the old blower continues to run quite well without noise.
The replacement of the blower, while straightforward, is not trivial and is
very time consuming. If I had it to do over again, with the front of the 87A
tilted up, I would have looked for a way to get a long oil dropper onto the
front of the blower shaft instead of removing the blower. The rear end of the
shaft is easily accessible through a hole in the rear of the chassis but the
noise seemed to be predominately from the front. The orange connector at the
rear of the AC unit holds the blower's AC leads. I'd disconnect it and splice
in 240v at let in run leaving the rest of the amp un-plugged and un-powered.
It would have been at least worth a try. Worst case is to have to replace
blower anyway.
73 - Steve WB6RSE
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