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Emerson Imperial Silver Swan loose pivot mechanism


Anthony Villanacci

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Hello,

I’ve been reading AFCA forums for years, this is my first time posting. I’m grateful such a great community of experts exists to help preserve these old machines.

 

I recently acquired an Emerson Imperial model Silver Swan, 10” single speed. I have never handled one of these in person and was surprised to find a lot of play between the base and the cage/motor assembly.  I expected a fairly tight mechanism.


I traced the looseness to the cast piece that serves as the oscillator central pivot axis, which additionally attaches to one side of the oscillator arm and keys into the square hole in the base. However, it looks like it is attached at the pivot via a blind pin so I can’t easily get in to see what the mating surfaces look like and why it’s so loose. (See pic)

 

Literature from Emerson describes “smooth, uniform oscillating motion ensured by ball bearings in base socket.” (See pic)  Has anyone gotten this portion of the assembly apart? Is there supposed to be a ball bearing in there? Or is looseness to be expected here from these fans?  The fan is in otherwise excellent condition so I don’t believe it’s experienced a lot of wear and tear.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Anthony

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It’s just wore out.. tightening it up can be a bit of a nightmare because you have to open the hole up further and then re-bush it.. The one I have has about the same slope and I am a tool maker with the ability to fix it and don’t want to.. because I know what a nightmare that will entail. If you’re bound and determined to fix it you can drive out the pin and take the male piece and have it welded up and then re-machine back down to get a tighter fit..  

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I have the 12" 3-speed version of this fan, and I've not really noticed anything about it either way, except that mine has had some damage to it over the years (cosmetic damage) and the fan runs pretty smoothly and fairly quietly when on lower speeds.  

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Dave its a blind pin so it can’t be driven out unless I were to drill a hole through the opposite side.  With your technical experience how would you go about tackling the pin’s removal? I’m mechanically competent but I usually work on things meant to come apart so this is a new one for me.

 

Thanks,

Anthony

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Update: Lawrence’s photo helped me sort out this assembly. I had grease both masking the pin on the square key and making the screw on the cover piece look like a blind pin. But I got everything apart, it ended up being pretty simple. The threaded shaft was loose as some of you suspected, though I was able to back it out and screw it in tight. I’m going to try a little thread lock on the rod and see if it resolves the issue. Thanks for the help folks.
 

Anthony

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One thing of interest I found were the two little oil wicks machined into the square key’s mating surface with the cover.  In case that’s not common knowledge, that would be a good spot for lubrication maintenance next time any other Silver Swan owners do an overhaul. 

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