Actuallly, this "thing" began yesterday. When it turned cold, I reversed the ceiling fans and suddenly the two main ones developed a kind of disturbing swing and out of balance look and the one in our dining room was actually making a noise.
The third one in our master bedroom seemed fine. The one over our dining room area was demanding attention, so I got out my ladder and investigated. I found that three of the giant blades were so loose that I could move them with my hand. We were about to have an airborne guillotine situation develop.
After tightening all that up, lubricating both top and bottom bearings, giving it an OCD cleaning, that one was perfect with no more noise and no out of balance behavior. I felt great.
The one in the living room is a bit different and actually has a built in channel that makes oiling the bearings very easy. I had never taken it apart, but it was in need of a decent balance job after all these years. SO, back up on my ladder, the first thing I did was to remove the motor from the hanging mechanism so I could check all the connection points for stability, balance and overall cleanliness. Really though, even considering that this unit is quite old the so called "balance" should not change over time, except due to EXTREME wear in the bearings or looseness somewhere as with the other unit.
I was resolving myself to preparing to replace the bearings. Not that hard of a job, but involved.
Back on the ladder again, I am taking the top hanger hardware apart to inspect THAT mechanism when I discovered that when this thing was hung up in the ceiling the install hack only used one screw, instead of the two required and on top of that he did not even use a proper machine screw, but a fucking drywall screw. Anyway, we have been sitting under this dodgily hung ceiling fan for twenty seven years we have been in this house (YES, our mortgage is almost paid off!!).
I ended last night by shoring up the mounting area inside the ceiling that supports the weight of this fifty five pound fan and its spinning torque and re-tapping the hole for a larger screw where the idiot put the wrong type of screw in, finding two good screws, cinching all that up solid as it is supposed to be, re-setting the hanger extension bar and positioning the trim piece which has been "crooked" for years. I now know why it was crooked up there.
Today I have taken the motor apart and serviced the bearings, replaced the little felt washer thingies that protect the finish on the blades from the solid brass of the arms that hold them to the shaft of the motor. I did not bother to mark which blade came from which spot, as I learned many years ago, because the fan has been hanging crooked for years and will need a full re-balance of the blades anyway.
Now I am waiting for some help getting this motor back into position and re-installed properly. My son was handy last night while taking it down, but he is at work, now and my wife is enjoying her normal sleep time after her return from work at around four AM this morning.
