Well like so many others I had a problem with my heater blower when I had smoke coming from the dash and blown fuses .
I knew it had to be a seized motor from the smoke , this is caused when the copper wire that is wound inside the motor gets too hot and the varnish insulation that the wire is coated in starts to melt .
So today I had a work job cancel and decided to tackle the blower, so first stop Wiki / search the forums ( I found there were solutions to things that weren't updated in wiki in Bilbo Blue's post )
First thing I found was there is no need to remove the steering wheel , I knew about the column because CovKid mentioned it in his wiki update , but didn't know about the wheel .
Here is where the luck comes in !! I was expecting to experience problems with extracting all the bolts and screws that comes with removing the dash , well they all came out a dream .
Now the dash is out and time to tackle the heater box , no need to disconnect coolant pipes easy job to do without all that palava.
Six little screws that hold it in have caused problems for some .... OOH lucky me first two came out easy and were as bright as the day they were put in , now to take the grill off to take the screws from above the radiator ( who thought of that stupid idea , why not have six from the inside ) anyway they were easy to get out .
Tough ones now , beside the steering column and behind the coolant pipes , I had read in a previous post that you will need a 200mm phillips 3 because the top one is deep down I used a phillips 3 socket on two extension bars 300mm ... perfect and being socket set easier to put pressure and turn as this is the one screw you don't want to strip the top , it would be a right barsteward to drill out .
All my screws came out a piece of pish
though if just one had started to turn the top I would have stopped and wd40'd the lot , guess i was lucky .so i accessed the blower motor from the front intake vent and gave it a good spray with wd40 then putting my hand inside the other vent turned the fan which was seized at first then bit more wd40 and more spinning to free it .
Now I reconnect the battery ( make sure no live wires that can short out , you've unplugged lots to get this far and you don't want to cause more problems) now i reconnect the fan switch and turn on the ignition , knew my luck couldn't last only works on position 3, though this does tell me that the resistor is working . Motor needs to come out .
Quick look at the wiki section that I had printed out , always have instructions to hand saves all that running in and out to look at computer .
Hmmm so mine doesn't have any clips on the heater box top to get it off and I read that you may need to replace them as they are prone to breaking , so I came to trawl the forum for info on this came across a post by Bilbo from way back in 2006 , sure enough not all have clips some are glued/heat welded so he advised using knife , I found the easiest way was a brand new stanley blade inserted into the join where the lug meets the top , tap the knife gently with a screwdriver handle and it will prise apart , lift the knife up and into join and tap along the lug ..... easy just go all the way round opening with a screwdriver in the join and a twist .
Now I have the blower out along with the resistor and the fan switch and snip the live wire from the loom ....... take blower to workshop
I can see straight away what has happened the fan is moving but the spindle is not turning inside the bush it's turning the bush as well ..... Ok no point flaffing around if you come this far ..... out with the motor from the unit , there are to metal wire clips that hold the motor in remove them , open a vice to wider than the size of the motor place the blower with the motor facing down , inside the fan you will see the other end of the spindle place a flat punch on this and tap gently with a hammer it may be well in there , mine was .... so a couple of not so gentle taps
it does come out Other end spindle is also seized in the bush and there should be a little movement of the motor along the spindle wd40 the spindle and tap it back and forth gently you will see the wd40 turn a rust colour keep going till it moves freely clean the spindle with 1200 wet and dry and wd40 at both ends of the spindle , now the spindle should spin inside the bush .
Might as well check the brushes , undo the clips (watch out for the springs)
tweezers work well for pulling them out ..... mine were ok .
Got late now so will wait till tomorrow to test the motor but my copper coil is well blackened so it may well be toast ...... but well I am determined to do all work myself so if need be I will take the motor apart unwind the coil ( if you attempt this don't lose count of the unwinds ) get the appropriate wire and rewind it .
well thats it for now , did you get this far without falling asleep
will update tomorrow on state of affairs ........ in a sort of masochistic way I'm hoping that I have to rewind it ........ dedication to the cause
