I’ve had these steel fans over a decade and I maintain them with a little grease each summer. This summer in particular, I think the grease in the can is degrading and I’ve needed to do this maintenance three times this year so far. Not wanting to futz with this another time this year, I tried a new lubricant: baby oil (the mineral oil base kind of baby oil).
Works great and now my living room smells ever so slightly of baby.
Why would you get rid of something over washers and spacers? Those are relatively easy to buy or fabricate yourself.
What was in there wasn’t really identifiable anymore due to age/wear. The first thing that fell out was a bunch of pieces of plastic spacer that kept the rotor and stator in alignment. This is a tilting fan, so without that bit, the blade rattles around if it’s not perfectly vertical and held by the magnetic field. I tried replacing it with a spacer I had that looked of similar size, but it was still noisy. The other washer I know was broken, I couldn’t ID the material as it was really thin and really brittle, so it could have been fiber, nylon, or metal, so I wasn’t sure if it was there for friction reduction, lubrication, or to keep the shaft centered. I replaced it with a metal ring I had.
I did clean, lube, and reassemble the motor, and it spun much better, but now that all the loose crud holding it together was gone, it was noisier than before. The cord is also fairly ratty from being used in high traffic and multiple locations over the years, so that was due to be replaced soon as well. I gave it my best effort to salvage it, but with the new one being $40, I don’t want to play with friction/electricity in something I leave running all the time like when I’m asleep or away. If my repair attempt would have had better results, I’d have no issue with still using it.