Blower fan disintegration

[Jeepcat76]

I replaced the blower fan and associated resistor in our 2006 KJ yday. All proceeded smoothly until there was a rattle when switched to high followed by a bang and sound of debris flying through the duct system. Immediately switched it off, dropped out the fan revealing as suspected a partially destroyed fan blade. Pieces of the blades could be found in the box immediately adjacent but none had come through the vents. Not sure if all had been cleared but thinking anything close to the fan had been removed, I swapped the old fan blade onto the new motor, after confirming all was still functioning. This time all good for a bit longer but then again, whirr, bang, rattle and same resulting destroyed fan blade (more debris into the ducts )Two questions: how the heck am I going to get all those bits of fan blade out of the ducts (ideally without taking out the whole dash) and second, can it be the resistor rubbing up against the blade when set to high, it seems awful close. The blowers were both seated correctly and ran fine for a while before disintegrating. Another blower fan on the way and don’t want to destroy a third!

 

[JeepJeepster]

The bits cannot get past the evap which is right beside of the fan. You can reach your hand up in there and get out anything that may be in there.

Not sure whats causing the blades to explode. Ive had the fan out of many Jeeps and never had that happen. Just replaced the fan motor in my 94 ZJ yesterday with a new mopar unit, all is well.

 

[Billwill]

Possibly too much play in the shaft bushes/bearings or an out of balance fan.

The resistor is probably mounted close to the fan so as to cool the resistor down...are there any mounting screws for the resistor that are maybe protruding too far?

I have never had any issues with the fan/resistor on my 2002 Export CRD and it does get fairly hot here in SA!