I will share my low cost low tech things that have workedfor me.

1. if it doesn't chirp on a higher speed ....use it at that speed to get
it going. That seems to get the self-lubricating properties of the
bushings working again ...sometimes.
The chirp sound, IMO is the sound of metal molecules sheering off ,
metal to metal. Don't run it in chirpmode.

2. consider the Karl M fix ..involves drilling a hole and squirting lube.

3. back to low tech/low cost/low effort solution ... ...remove front
grill, then remove the smaller grill..
run fan , feed a fog of WD-40 into the fan air intake. This sort of
thing works a lot for me. Is an example of what I call 'messaging to
health.'

4. Submerge entire van in a giant vat of WD-40 for 2 minutes, lift out.
Drive.

re your comment ..
I have almost *never* had a problem treating *anything* with WD-40.
mainly metal and electrical, and  rubber , though sparingly on that one.
metal and electrical ..
mostly all it can take.
I would submerge a starter in WD-40 example..
as much as the notion of that might freak people out.
WD-40 as *never* done me wrong, in some 40 yrsof constant car work.
I buy it by the gallon and use a spray bottle.

On 4/8/2013 10:52 AM, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
> It's so loud and high pitched that it's painful to use the blower, even with
> my reduced hearing.  But, as I continue to, it's becoming less frequent.  Do
> these things ever fix themselves?  It's probably  dry bearing or worn
> commutator/brushes, but with only 140k on it (an '85) it doesn't seem like
> it should be worn out since my '84 worked fine for 20 years and 225k.
>
>
>
> I'm tempted to shoot some WD-40 into the intake, but I'd probably regret it.
>
>
>
>
> Stuart
>