Anyone know of a good place to buy PJ replacement parts (specifically fans)?

Looking to replace the fans in my Marantz VP4001 (reportedly identical to Sharpvision XV-Z3000). They're getting noisy and though I can take them out and lube them up, I thought I'd ask where I might find replacements.

No need to have a repair place do it for me - the fans are drop-ins and just plug into the main board. A 5 minute job.

Anyone know of a repair/parts place that would just send me the fans?

Thanks for any info.

Here are all of the markings I got from various spots on the fans:

NMB
MINEBEA-MATSUSHITA
7062263
PBT-GF30-FR
NFANRA053WJ00
NMB-MAT
MODEL 2810KL-04W-B39
12V DC 0.19A

Each of the 3 fans has 3 wires coming out of it. Two of them have a 3-pin connector for the main board, and one of them has a 4-pin connector though one of the 4 pin holes is not wired to anything.

The fans always seemed loud to me. A couple of years ago I tried some replacement fans: EVERCOOL EC7025M12CA 12V 0.19A. When I wired them up, the PJ would not start correctly. Never understood why not.

Lately I've heard an occasional slight rattling sound from them. I lubed them up this morning. Removed the round sticker covering the hub, and put 1 drop of very fine machine oil into the bearings. Put it all back together and I can't hear any difference at all. I'd just like to replace them.

I had googled earlier and saw that as well, but I fear that they'll need a minimum order. I plan to call them tomorrow and find out.

Hopefully I can just buy replacements from Digikey. If not, I'll try your suggestion. Thanks!

I found the fans, but there was a minimum 80 unit order.

I've lubed my current fans with light machine oil (no powdered graphite yet), and I'm toying with the idea of trying to replace the bearings.

The Evercools didn't work because evidently these particular fans get fed a certain signal on their third wire and then return a certain frequency on the ground wire. That's why a typical 3 wire replacement fan won't work.

If the lube or replacement bearings don't work out, I can't believe I may have to replace this PJ just because I can't get replacement fans.

Anyone know of a friendly PJ repair shop that may have these fans or could point me to a source (that won't make me buy 80 of them)?

I can try to call Marantz, but I was hoping someone here had a good experience getting parts from a repair shop. I'll report here with what I find.

Good to know. I was askeered of trying that anyway.

I plan to pick up some graphite at HD tomorrow.

Picked up some graphite, but I'm waiting to open the PJ back up again due to some partially good news:

There are 3 fans in the projector. They look identical at first glance but one of them has a sealed bearing and the other two have a non-sealed bearing (the sealed bearing fan is the one right next to the bulb that pumps out the majority of heat and dust). I finally got a hold of Marantz Support and they had one of the sealed bearing model in stock, and none of the non-sealed type. They don't expect to get any more of either type in again. Ever. I quickly ordered the one (sealed bearing version) they had (for $75!). This is the one making the most noise, so I got that going for me.

Support person advised me that some of their authorized service centers around the country might have some of the other fans in stock. So I've called a few and struck out so far.

When the new fan arrives, I'll install that one and use some graphite powder on the other two. And hope they last until it's time to upgrade the PJ.

I thought of that as well, but haven't called Sharp yet.

Fan arrived today. Installed it, as well as applying graphite powder to the remaining two original fans. Put it back together and while it does sound a good bit quieter, it's still louder than it was when brand new. I'd still like to replace the other two fans.

The search continues!

He gave the specs (and pics) here back in 2010. The fan label indicates model SP702512M. He also indicates that while he got one of these fans to work, installing two of them would cause the PJ to shut down after a few minutes.

I wanted to check with him that he still has that fan installed and it's still working properly before I bought one, but I just ordered one from Amazon.

Of the two original fans left in my Marantz, one of them sounds fine and one is a little noisy so I'll replace the noisy one with this Nexus. I'm still going to try to locate a couple of OEM spares to have on hand though.

Nexus arrived today. I pulled apart the Marantz again (getting really fast at this), and replaced the noisier original fan with the nexus. Definitely quieter, but when I held my hand up to the exhaust the Nexus definitely was putting out less CFM than the original did.

Not really worried about it, since the Nexus is the rearmost of the 3 fans and there's not much heat back there to expel anyway.

I'm not convinced it quit on him because of heat buildup - I would think the thermal button would have tripped, and he never mentioned that it did. That, and the middle fan doesn't throw out much heat compared to the front fan, either.

I didn't try two because I only ordered one. I suppose I could have repeated CZEddie's experiment, but I'm betting I'd get the same result. Perhaps the tachometer signal from all 3 fans is combined and using two Nexus fans falls below some threshold while using one does not. That's total conjecture on my part though, and not based on any knowledge whatsoever.