A bearing on the draft inducer motor on our Carrier 58PAV furnace is starting to go. In order to be sure that was the problem, and to get to an angle where I could read the markings on the motor, I unscrewed the draft inducer and pulled it out of the furnace. Sure enough there was audible bearing noise even when the motor was turned by hand. I'm shopping now for a replacement motor, which are available from several places, and which looks like it will cost around $100. Much cheaper than the estimated repair price from the folks who sold us the furnace
10 years ago - they thought it would be about $1000, and insisted that the entire inducer assembly needed to be replaced.Anyway, back to the subject at hand, between the inducer hardware and the furnace there was a 6" diameter gasket, about 1/2" wide and quite thin (1/16" maybe?), which pretty much fell apart when the inducer came out. It probably didn't help that the three mounting screws went through that gasket. The gasket was made of fiberglass and something that looks a lot like paper, but may not have been. The carrier service manual suggests resealing with high temperature RTV sealant, like GE
162, 6702, or Dow Corning 738. I'm not a big fan of glop gaskets, they tend to either make a mess or glue the part on more or less permanently (even though they aren't supposed to). On the web I've seen suggestions to use folded aluminum foil, but that doesn't seem like a good long term solution since it will put dissimilar metals in contact and electrolytic corrosion would eventually likely result.What else could I use to make a high temperature gasket for this application? Preferably something that can be found locally or easily ordered off the web. Would one of the gasket materials used in cars, and so available at the local car parts shop, be appropriate? It's kind of important that whatever is used not out gas noxious fumes when it's heated up.
Thanks,
David