My Champion blower cranks well and puts out good air. But when you stop cranking the blades begin beating against the housing something fierce. I was told that the bolt & big locking nut on the side of it adjusted this. No luck so far. I have set the depth of said bolt every where it can go and it still clangs away. Any ideas for a fix?

If you mean a 400 series then yes, the fan blade assembly is threaded on the shaft so you can adjust it and lock it down. I usually take the front fan housing off and adjust the fan until it starts hitting the back of the case. I then move the fan away from the case until it just clears at all speeds. Put the front of the fan case back in place and see if anything makes contact. Hopefully, you are done and can go back to work. If not, you can sometimes bend the blades a little if necessary and I have also used a right angle grinder to remove areas that are making contact. Only take off enough to clear spots that are hitting.

It sounds like you may need to adjust the blower shaft bearing, on the opposit end of the shaft as the fan blades there is a bearing with an adjustable collar so you can adjust the amount of endplay in the blower shaft.
Grab a hold of the fan and pull in and out, how much does it move? if you pull it out and it hits the housing then you need to adjust the endplay in the shaft.
Remove the cap with a pair of channel locks or pipe wrench, loosen the locknut and turn the adjusting collar in till there is just a minimal amount of movement, then tighten locknut and install cap, this is also a good time to inspect bearing and make sure it is well lubricated.
And if you have an extra one of the tapered collars that rides against the ball bearing in there, I mentioned in another thread that I needed one, well, I still do. Anybody? Please, I'll gladly pay for it!!!

welder19

Thanks folks. I am going to get into it after my vacation next week.