Buildup on stator

Your library seems to be private.

The fan should spin freely.

AC fan motors usually don't generate much torque on startup, because fans don't usually need it.

Photobucket says "This Library is Private", so I can't take a look. If it's a blue that looks intentional and it's not the color of your local dust (or your pet bird's feathers), then that's probably not the problem. It's more likely that you have dirt in the bearings, or a buildup of crud between two surfaces that normally ride close together. I would look for dusty, dirty, brown, gray or black, depending on the crud.

My mistake, it's a rotor.

As far as I can tell, there are no bearings.

I worked on a similar motor before in a vibrator.

I lightly sanded off the rotor and it worked again.

Seems to me that the blue material doesn't belong and is causing it to rub on the stator. Unless the rotor expanded on it's own.

Anything that holds the shaft in position while allowing it to turn is a bearing. Maybe there's no ball bearings, or no obvious journal bearings, but there's _always_ bearings.

If they're cheap journal bearings they may be worn enough that the shaft no longer stays centered, allowing the rotor to rub on the stator.

Also the 'bush' type journals are normally enclosed by, or in contact with, felt or similar. This is initially soaked in oil to migrate into the bush as required. Commonly after many years it dries out and after a while so does the oil in the bush. In many cases a good clean up and relube the bearing and felt restores operation.

Thanks Tim and Rheilly.

I put some light machine oil on both bearings.

My daughter is very happy to get her fan running again.

Andy