heater blower woes!

[charlie brown syndrome]

hi everyone,

Ive had a problem with my vans heater blower since ive had it.
Basically, it doesnt work all the time, its more often not working than does work.
Ive changed the actual switch behind the little heater control panel as the old one seemed to have a lot of play in the little spindle (where the little turn knob pushes into) but to no avail,
the wiring to the back of the switch was in poor condition, it was very brittle and when I pulled the plug off one of the wires broke, it looks like its either got very hot or its corroded somehow, anyway, I cut all the bad cable out and replaced with fresh cable but its still not working. I know the blower works as when its working it works well( all speeds work as they should etc), but it hasnt worked for a while.
Whats the best way of doing it now?
I dont want to take all the dash out unless absolutely necessary.
With the onset of dodgy weather in the next few months I want to get it working.

I'm already bowing down to your expert opinions as your a knowledgeable lot
cheers

[VWCamperfan]

There's a possibility it could be the brushes in the motor that have worn. Run a direct 12v supply to the motors wires, bypassing the switch and see what happens. If nothing then it's motor related.

[charlie brown syndrome]

cheers for the reply,
i will check out what you have said, would the fan work so well when it does work if it was the brushes though?
is there any other 'common' problems as this van seems to suffer with every common problem under the sun,
i have checked the wiki but it doesnt say a lot about it.
cheers

[VWCamperfan]

Yes, it can do that with the brushes, not always but it can.
And it's quite common to have common problems too!

Might be an idea to check the earth connection from the fan beneath the fuse box too. Common area for another common problem!