Stuck fan repair / replacement

[DJ Sures]

I guess I’m a caveman.

Bending the blades a little seemed less destructive than filing or dremeling. Ook ook?

Haha zot! I think the reasoning of centering is to be easier on the bearings. Once the blade is bent, it’ll put force on one side which will wear the bearing or bushing. I don’t think anyone knew what the three little screws in the center of the fan did - so the first idea was to simply bend the blades

[BlueIn2Red]

Anybody else really struggling to do it the "right" way? The clearance is so tight that there is only really one specific position where I get no contact, but then as soon as I tighten the screws up again everything shifts just a tiny amount, but enough to create the dreaded noise. Added to the very fiddly way the fan attaches to the case, I'm finding it all incredibly frustrating!

[DJ Sures]

Is the part that touches for blades on the bottom? That’s what I think most are experiencing. The motor component slides down, which is why the blades touch the bottom. I loosened the screws, used my fingers to pull the motor assembly upward, and retightened the screws while continuing to hold it.

[BlueIn2Red]

That's exactly what I'm trying to do, but I just seem to move it so it touches somewhere else. It also varies very much depending on gravity - I thought I'd cracked it once (no noise on my desk in the correct orientation), only to have the noise when the fan was in its final mounting place. Oh well, I'll just keep trying I guess!

[tastypies]

While I've actually replaced the NABU fan (since it won't work with 230V mains power), I did spend some time adjusting the screws on the original fan to see if it can actually be done. In my experience it took several(!) goes undoing and retightening the screws before I had it turning freely - hence the "repeat as necessary" comment in the how-to guide!

To avoid frustration you could always replace it with a new fan. I opted for a 'Noctua NF-A8 ULN, Ultra Quiet Silent Fan', which doesn't make the system sound like a jet taking off while still adequately dissipating heat. It also comes with 'noise reducing' clips, which you simply pull through the holes in the case and clip the fan in place, and are a lot less fiddly to install than the nuts and bolts. Then again, wiring a 12v fan to the original PSU might prove challenging....

D.

[BlueIn2Red]

Cracked it in the end! Just lots of tries and patience...

[TorontoNabu]

Just opened my Nabu... stuck fan.

I used the method to just loosen the three screws holing the fan/motor to the housing then re-aligning the fan. This worked for me, but I also found that I had to add a little black tape between motor and housing to give it a little more grip so it would not move. I found that once I re-centred the fan it would move just a little once I held it vertically to re-install. The three small screws holding the fan & motor to the housing are not great and kind of weak.

Here is a picture of small amount of tape, 3 pieces probably < 1mm square each, on the motor/fan before I put it back together.

Now onto the bad video....