An oldish thread, but the problem will continue to surface.
I’ve got a pro, and well out of warranty, so as my exhaust fan has stopped, with no signs of life, I decided a deep clean was necessary, so I’ve removed the fan, and while at it removed a large area of the grill behind it.
Now embarking on cleaning the fan, but need to test it to see if it’s dead, or just playing possum.
Anyone give me a heads up on the way a ’ four pole, single phase motor’ works ? I’m not clear about the significance of the pwm wire. If I put a meter across the red/black wire, it’s open circuit, so I suspect attaching a 12v supply to it will have no effect.
If the fan proves to be dead, that will be the next item to be opened up, if only for my own education !
John 
…or buy a replacement fan. available on digikey I believe. The actual part was listed in this forum at some point not too long ago.
Fan is not in stock in the US. DigiKey is 12 weeks out.
Measuring continuity won’t tell you anything, it’s an electronic component, not electro-mechanical, but supplying 12V to the power leads (red & black) will make it run at full speed (if it’s operational). It draws 4A, so you need a beefy power supply to do that.
The PWM wire gives speed control, when not used, it just runs at full speed.
I used an auto trim removal tool like this, and slid up behind the tab - no effort required at all, no need to lever them out of the way:
Perfect tool for that! 
only question for me: can i find my trim removal tool? it’s one of those “use so rarely” things.
I think a paint can opener would work equally well…
Edit - not on a pro. The heatsink for the cooler near the fan would prohibit getting it in there.
The paint can opener, with the end ground to a chisel edge, worked well on the pro.
What I did was to use the opener on the rearmost tab first, to lift the tab slightly, then pushed a wooden wedge(small length of popsicle stick, also sharpened) underneath.
I pulled the can opener out, then moved the tube to the back of the forge, and carried on with the middle tab, wedged again, and the front tab, with the third wedge.
So for the pro, paint can opener plus one popsicle stick cut into three wedges.
John
I know its not good etiquette to revive such an old thread, but I have looked high and low to no avail. Is the teardown guide from @scott.wiederhold’s still readily available. Being a I.T. teacher, I consider myself good at researching, but I could not find this anywhere. I also have a wide variety of tool that I use for opening laptops, phones and tablets. It sounds like a pc spudger would get those tabs. I would be opening a plus model, not a pro. Which I read is much harder.
I don’t know if the spudger would be strong enough, those tabs are pretty stiff. I have Scott’s teardown somewhere, I’ll see if I can remember to dig it up when I get home tonight.
I got the larger tool kit from Best Buy when I desperately needed to get my daughter’s chromebook equipped with a new lcd display.
i would think that some of the spudgers in that kit would likely be strong enough.
I have a set of auto trim removal tools that I got at an auto parts store (Advance or O’Rielly probably) that are made of nylon and has one with an end that’s just about the same size & shape as the tabs that are holding the top & the case together. Probably under $20.
well that was cheaper. so far I have popped apart the chromebook and fixed that. and I opened a galaxy TAB so I could reset the power switch that was stuck.
pretty much paid for itself already. my daughter’s whole school day revolves around that chromebook.