Evaporator Fan Motor - 115V 60Hz

For the past couple of months, noticed evap fan in freezer making some noise. Then came home one day and noticed ice cubes were melting and evap fan wasn't running. Moved all food to sister's house. Took off bottom sheet metal panel in freezer. Used screwdriver to turn fan, was able to get it going again, but only at about 25% of normal s ... Read more peed. This was not enough to maintain normal temps. Searched the Internet and found this site, read the existing repair stories. Unlike some of the others, I only replaced the evap motor, not the fan and rubber grommets. Despite being 18 yrs old, the grommets were as pliable and perfect as the day they were made. Definitely do as the first reviewer said; get your mobile and take pics of the wiring and grommets and fan depth on the shaft before you remove the motor! Once I received the motor, I went to remove the fan from the old motor, and realized that there aren't any set screws or other visible way to loosen the fan from the shaft. I thought "THIS is why the other guy ordered the fan and grommets!". I was determined not to pay 40 bucks for a 50 cent piece of plastic. I took the largest flathead screwdriver I have and put the tip against the back of the fan, right against the shaft. Took another screwdriver and whacked it 3 times. The fan popped off without being damaged! When I went to put the old fan on the new motor, I noticed that it was very loose and I could easily slide the fan up and down by hand. Where as I had tried to remove the fan from the old motor by hand and couldn't get it to budge, which is why I had to use the screwdrivers to hammer it off. Well, I discovered that the shaft of the new motor was just a bit smaller than the original motor! Obviously I couldn't let the fan run that loosely, so I went to Home Depot and got the smallest tube of while Gorilla glue they have, which was only 4 bucks. Put the grommets, brackets and fan together and verified(make SURE you have the fan on the right direction, because you will have to break the fan to get it off!). I put a couple of drops on both sides of the fan. Let it set for several hours, and the fan was on there permanently. Put the whole assembly back into the freezer and plugged it in. Motor started running just fine. I left the back panel off just in case, and put a thermometer in both the freezer and fridge. After about an hour I checked the temp in the freezer and was surprised that it wasn't cooling as fast as I thought it would. I then thought that the back panel may well be needed to properly circulate air, so I put it back on. Checked after another hour or so and it was colder, but still far from zero. I let it run overnight and it was down to 20F in the morning. When I got home from work it was down to 0F finally! So don't be surprised if it takes a long time to cool back down to zero. Apparently it just does. And don't forget to vacuum and blow off the coils!