I've had my gable fan for more than 40 years, and it's still going
strong.

You say you lubed yours as best you could - I assume that means you
dripped some oil into the holes provided for that purpose.

Too little ... too late.

Given that the windings have not burned out - you need to take it apart
completely - remove the long screws that hold the whole thing together.

Then give the bronze oilite bushings a good cleaning with mineral
spirits, or the like, and when re-assembling ... lubricate the front and
rear shafts with the same oil you use for the yearly drip-hole
lubricating - squirt some oil into the front and rear bushings, let
soak, then pour out the excess.

Make sure the shaft spins freely after re-assembling ... sometime this
requires careful torqueing of the screws - sometimes a sharp rap with a
hammer, on the body of the motor.

I have resurrected a couple of neighbor's jammed gable fans that had
been neglected, and lectured them about lubing the damn thing every
year.

Can't overlube - the excess will just run out the bottom ... but the
wicking material surrounding the bushing should be saturated. If kept
lubricated, the steel armature shaft will never actually touch the
bronze bushing, but float in a film of oil.

Joe

Yeah, I know ... webtv and all that crap -