Older Sears whole house fan --can't find any info

[mattl]

I picked up an older  or maybe old Sears Whole House fan on CL to help with my basement humidity problem.  The unit works -- that's not the issue.  Before I put it in the attic I'd like to lube it well, odds are it's not been done for some time.  It has an Emerson motor and I found info on that, it needs 20w oil, and I see two rubber plugs on the ends which I think are for oil.  The shaft of the fan has a spring loaded cover that I believe is for oil too, just not sure how much and what type.  I'm thinking of using the same 20w oil I get for the motor.

 

The Sears model number is 758.63912, and it come up but the manual is NLA, and there is no info on Google that I can find.  Can anyone hazard a guess as to it's age and oil needs?

 

[mixfinder]

Mind Blowing

Our house in Parchment Michigan had an attic fan. I loved the clunk of the louvers opening, the whop, whip, whop or the big slow blades and the way the curtains stood out as the wind rushed in the windows and up the stairs.

 

[volvoguy87]

Pic?

Is this fan direct drive or belt drive? Ceiling or window mount?
Dave

 

[whirlcool]

I loved the clunk of the louvers opening, the whop, whip, whop or the big slow blades.

Yeah, those things were loud! That bang of the shutters opening could wake the dead! They kind of made a big bang type of noise.

 

[mattl]

It's a 32" square ceiling mount - which is an odd size - and it's belt driven.  The models I see today are either 30" or 36" so I"d bet this is old.  Sears still has some parts available, just wish they kept a .pdf of the manual.

 

[goatfarmer]

It can't hurt to put a few drops of lite oil or the 20W for the shaft.

 

[mattl]

I got some 20w turbine oil today, hard to believe Home Depot had nothing that would work.  Got some at the local hardware.  Oiled the motor, I found two rubber plugs, one at each end, and oiled it well. the Emerson website said about a teaspoon in each, got close to that.  The fan shaft has a small spring action cover so I oiled that up too.   Everything turned easily.

 

Opened up the electrical connection cover and attached a cord, I'm not hard wiring it at this point and removed the wires that were there, they were just clipped off when it was pulled out and set it down and plugged it in --nothing but a hum!  when I looked at it last week the guy hooked it up and it started right up.  Pulled the motor and tried it, ran fine, reassembled it and took a bit of tension off the belt and it started right up.  So I'm good to go.  Set it in the opening and powered it up and it's not too noisy and it does draw nicely.

 

In the process I did notice a date stamp of 1973 on the housing so it's just a few years shy of 40...