Damper Motor Woes

mdtatter · Post by **mdtatter** » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 10:41 am

Hi, I just joined the forum. Been a long-time reader and have enjoyed seeing and learning about the old parlor heaters in particular. This forum is a wonderful resource.

My own situation: I have a Moncrief coal furnace, circa 1960. This is a 24-inch round forced-air furnace with kidney. Very common type of furnace back in the 50's and 60's. Sears sold the same model under the name of Crane.

I began using this furnace about 30 years ago in my old 3000 sq. ft home. I've had to refurbish the kidney and some firebrick along the way. Still, the old gal heats well with the local bituminous I get from the mines.

Aside from the amazing jump in the price of coal in my Western Maryland location ...I've encountered a new problem. This furnace has a damper-motor which drives a chain, and that chain opens the draft-door below the firebox while simultaneously closing the flue-draft damper beyond the furnace. This damper motor is a 115-volt unit but also has two smaller lower-voltage switch wires which connect to an upstairs room-thermostat. I've had to clean and jury-fix this motor several times down through the years but now it's finally died. The trouble is, nobody sells this type of damper motor.

Question: Does anybody on this forum have one of these type motors and would care to sell it to me?

Or, is there some other type of damper motor that can be substituted? I saw a Honeywell 24-volt damper motor with an armature on EBAY, which I might somehow rig to the damper door below the firebox; and, since the existing chain still connects that door to the flue-pipe damper, it could work.
**Broken Link(s) Removed**.

I presume I'd also need to acquire a 24-volt step-down transformer power-supply to run it? Or do these 24 volt damper motor contain their own step-down transformer?

Any advice or ideas you all could give me would be much appreciated.

Mdtatter

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 11:22 am

Question: Does anybody on this forum have one of these type motors and would care to sell it to me?

I have a couple NEW 24vac just like the ebay model in your link above. I would be willing to sell you one. Also have NEW transfomer for same.

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 11:39 am

mdtatter wrote: Question: Does anybody on this forum have one of these type motors and would care to sell it to me?
Mdtatter

Post a photo of what you need. I have a used damper motor that was on my parents coal boiler. It had two lever arms with chains. One to the flue damper and one to the ash draft door. Controlled by a room thermostat. It may be what you need.

mdtatter · Post by **mdtatter** » Sat. Oct. 22, 2011 1:20 pm

[img]damper%20motor.jpg[/img]

Yes, I should have posted an image.

This is my damper motor in the flesh. The yellow and blue wires connect to the thermostat. The chain which actuates both damper-door and flue-door is pulled by a sprocket wheel on the end of the motor shaft.

Mc Giever, Yanche, I'm feeling better knowing I have some possible options.

Mdtatter

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sun. Oct. 23, 2011 2:30 am

Look anything like this...

Field Barochek Control

mdtatter · Post by **mdtatter** » Sun. Oct. 23, 2011 6:43 am

Thanks for the interest and help, Mc Giever.

The chain set-up for the system of opening ash-pit door while closing flue damper door resembles the last illustration in that PDF; but my system doesn't use a lever on top of the furnace. It uses that damper motor, instead. BTW, not seen in the photo, there is also a spring attached to the chain so that if power goes off, that spring will tug the chain back down, closing the fire-pit door while opening the flue-damper. This action shuts the furnace down.

In the photo I posted, the damper motor (with the orange label on its side) has now finally died and no longer runs. When it did run, it would spin twice, moving the chain up-and -down about seven-inches. In the photo, the chain heading down from the sprocket at 6-oclock goes to the fire pit draft door; while the chain heading off at 8-oclock crosses the top of the furnace, angles over a small pulley wheel then travels down to and opens/closes the flue damper. An upstairs room thermostat activates the damper motor.

For the last few days I've been tugging the chain up-and-down manually to speed and slow the burn. At night I've been closing 'er down completely. Thankfully it's not too cold here in Frostburg ....yet.

I need some sort of thermostat-controlled motor to move the chain up-and-down. Yanche's motor with the levers and direct thermostat connect reads to be the closest cousin to what I need. Attaching the chain to levers would work.

ron138 · Post by **ron138** » Sun. Nov. 27, 2011 4:23 pm

Here near Chicago / Joliet, IL, there are lots of companies that specialize in electric motors that will rebuild any motor for very reasonable prices (usually less than a new chinese built electric motor.) My last house had an attic fan that wasn't working and for under $20 they had it working like new in a few days! Check your yellow pages. May be an option.

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Mon. Nov. 28, 2011 8:54 am

Have the motor rebuilt...

mdtatter · Post by **mdtatter** » Mon. Nov. 28, 2011 5:02 pm

Hey! Thanks CapeCoaler and Ron 138.

I replaced the damper motor with a newer model (Honeywell) a day or so after my last post in October. Had to do a little fussing and alteration to the old set-up ...but it works fine now.

Long live coal,
Mdtatter

Damper Motor Woes

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