Inspiron 1300 fan

My fan has been making a grinding noise on and off for a while now.  Today, my computer shutdown a few times, and using the diagnostic I was getting about 30 RPM on the fan when it was expecting 4300.  Needless to say, I need to replace the fan.  Does Dell sell these at a reasonable price?  I've found some on the web for about $35.00.  In reviewing the service manual, it seems I have to remove the heat sink, CPU, hard drive, memory, DVD drive, etc, etc, etc, before I can replace the fan.  Does anybody have any experience replacing the fan in this model?  Do I really have to remove everything to get to the fan?  Thanks in advance.