1988 AirCo furnaces - repair or replace?

[mmahdi]

Hello,

I have a pair of AirCo furnaces in my up/down duplex.

The downflow furnace's blower motor bearings seized.  The technician is having a hard time finding bearings and thinks it's hard to get it off the shaft, but, thinks it's doable.  I've read these furnaces are very reliable and all can be fixed other than the heat exchanger, which is very unlikely to go.

My questions are:

1) is it worth spending the money to conduct this repair and can I *reasonably* expect reliable operation afterwards? 

2) are other parts reasonably available should their be another breakdown?

I've attached photos for reference.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Les]

I could not recommend spending any money repairing these furnaces.  Just my opinion

[hausdok]

They reached the end of their expected service life decades ago. They will be energy inefficient when compared to modern furnaces and it's more than likely that they DO have cracked heat exchangers. If I owned a building where they were in place, I'd call 1-800-GotJunk, get rid of them, and purchase a couple of new ones with a nice long warranty on them.

[Jim Katen]

I'm gonna disagree with my esteemed brethren. Those old Aircos are beasts. Get some new bearings on the blower and use your money for other things. 

About the only thing that can't be replaced on these furnaces is the heat exchanger and, as you say, they're likely to last a very, very long time if you keep the damn filters clean. If your technician doesn't know how to find a bearing at Graingers and if he doesn't know how to get one on and off a shaft, you need another technician. It's not rocket science.