Here is what the blower looks like on the bench. It's pretty rusted and pitted. The two halves are held together with machine screws and nuts which are completely rusted. The fan is on a shaft held in two plain bearings. More on the bearings later.
The pits are deep, but this thing is made of HEAVY cast iron. Plenty of meat still there, no worries about pinholes.
Here you can see that the mating fit between the halves is not the best - there is a lot of some kind of filler material in there.
I will Dremel off the screws and split the halves and see what's up.
