On Thu, 05 May 2016 02:49:09 -0400, Paul wrote:

There is no oil seal. There is a dust cap.
And while the fan is spinning, I would expect
a slight mechanical load on the bottom surface
of the spindle.

Thanks for the drawing. These fans are interesting as they're super simple.

I'm pretty sure my fan lost its lubrication, which means I pretty much
need to lube it manually, which means I need to disassemble more.

Nobody says you can permanently fix a dying fan, but, most say you can
get some more life out of it, or, at least use it while a new fan is on
order.

Plus, if I disassemble it, I might be able to find a part number for the
fan itself, since the heat sink is what's costing so much money ($75) and
nothing goes wrong with a heat sink.

Looking up the lubricants to use, I found this, which resurrects the age-old
question of using a thin oil such as sewing machine oil versus a thin grease
such as a dab of white lithium grease.
http://superuser.com/questions/10079...o-a-laptop-fan

The comments in that article say that laptop fans are typically designed
to work without lubricant, which I find odd.