Erratic Ceiling Fan

[radhak]

My Garage has a ceiling fan with a 3-lamp fitting underneath. Came with the house, around 5 year old. Has worked okay all this while, though with a strong wobble that I always planned on attempting to fix but never got around to.

Now for the past 4 days it has been playing tricks with me. One fine evening I noticed I was sweating - the fan had stopped. The lamps were lit as always. Jiggled the cord 'switch' for the fan a couple of times, no avail; cursed it for failing and potentially adding to my list of things to fix / replace. But the next day, it worked! As good as before! I thought the problem was just a glitch and told SWMBO that I'd fixed it ; well, woe is me, that same evening it stopped working again; and sometime yesterday it worked, did not this morning, and just now it's working again. Yes, I have been testing it every so often to try and find a pattern - could not find any.

So whaddya think it is? Loose connection? Where? Ghost in the machine? Whose ?

Any suggestions how to fix it? (particularly with least money spent )

[Pappy]

Sounds like the ghost of Lucas, Prince of Darkness, has become bored with British vehicles and started to tinker with more modern devises.

Could be a bad switch, motor, or sawdust in the works. To me, the last would be worst case since it is a potential fire hazard.

[Uncle Cracker]

If the fan has had a severe wobble, all the moving around has probably loosened one of the wire connections (typically made with wire nuts). There may have also been a wire worn through by contacting some hard surface. There are any number of other possibilities, such as a faulty switch, but in any event, this is a potentially dangerous situation, and should receive immediate attention. If you know your way around wiring, turn off the power and have a gander at it yourself. Otherwise, I'd call an electrician.