Heater Blower....

[zippster]

i just joined the heater club, mine was squeaking though now doesnt work think its time for a heater motor

The "drill a hole in the front behind the grill & oil / grease the bearing" method might still work, just as a temp fix in view of the weather, it did on mine and it is still going, I had to give the end of the shaft a sharp poke with a long screwdriver to kick it into turning again, enough to get the lube (I used grease on the end of said screwdriver) moving into the bearing. It is quite noisy still, not squeaking now but rattling, showing the bearings have gone.

Getting the grill off, getting the splash guard off, drilling the hole, getting a indicator bulb soldered onto a bit of wire, and greasing the bearing sounds a lot but can be done in 1/2 an hour.

so i can get to the heater motor from the front then or do i need to take dash out, if i do think just have new motor

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

the original post documenting the way to get at the bearing is here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... =fan+drill" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

you only need the first page really. As John has mentioned - you need a light to stick up there - I used a head torch. Also you probably need two holes- one to see and one to apply the grease. I did it with one and kept shoving stuff in until it stopped squeaking! Bear in mind that the bearing is up at about 45 degrees from that hole.

Good luck

Ewen

[StuM]

Well, got the heater box out and open today and can confirm that it is an absolute sod of a job! One sheared bolt, one rounded cross in screw head, one snapped plastic tab.. one bolt out fine! Now out though and best do a good job so as not to have to do it again!!

[pocolow]

After the heater Fan started screeching and not fancying taking out the Dashboard I opted for drilling the hole from the front. I followed the instructions on where to drill. To be honest no amount shining a torch down the vent helped in illuminating anything , so I opted for just spraying 3in 1 oil in whilst running the fan and bingo withing 30 seconds screech had gone. Ive now plugged the hole with a rubber grommet.

[StuM]

So..

I tested the motor today - given a 12V feed it failed to turn.. until I gave it a slight tap on the side, when it turned. Tried again, nothing again - tap again , back into life. I wonder if the brushes might be worn. In any case, not wanting to take the heater box out again, I have ordered a new motor to drop in, so that should be it sorted. On the plus side, I've had a good clean and tidy up behind the dash, and will be sorting out the wiring and other jobs while in there.

The downside is that I'll be van-less for the Box Hill meet - and it's only 5 miles from me!

[StuM]

For those that like a photo, here's the dash and heater box out.. and the area now cleaned and polished. The grey in the fresh air vent holes is Kurust - there were a couple of rusty bits in there. Next is to tidy the wiring up.



For information, I ordered my heater blower motor from Volksbits and, despite only paying standard postage, it turned up this morning! I'm going to be fitting it tomorrow, once I've had a chance to clean up the heater box - 25 years of dust and grime in there!

Cheers,
Stu

[kevtherev]

can you get to the heater core (matrix) and give that a good clean too?

[StuM]

Hey Kev - yes, that is out too, so I'm going to give that a blow through at the same time. Didn't look too bad on first inspection, but reckon there's tonnes of dust between the fins!

Cheers,
Stu

[kevtherev]

great
fella I know cleared the debris from his and the result was unbelievably good.
well worth it I'd say
I'll be doing mine later this year, be interesting to see what comes out if anything, I guess it's all down to where it's been for 20 odd years

[StuM]

Thanks, I'll post up and let you know how it goes.

[ghost123uk]

After the heater Fan started screeching and not fancying taking out the Dashboard I opted for drilling the hole from the front. I followed the instructions on where to drill. To be honest no amount shining a torch down the vent helped in illuminating anything ,

I reckon that is because the bearing is only seen by looking through the hole high up and to the left.
To illuminate that area I found a bulb on a bit of wire, that lit up the whole "void" worked.
I now have 2 holes, one to look through and one to get the lube onto the bearing.

As I mentioned above though, my bearings rattle even when lubed so will have to be a new motor sooner rather than later.

Can we share suppliers prices on motors (to save all that tedious looking them all up)

[StuM]

Can we share suppliers prices on motors (to save all that tedious looking them all up)

Volksbits, via Ebay: £34 delivered and arrived next day.

GSF were about £44 plus post.

[StuM]

(Heater matrix) Didn't look too bad on first inspection, but reckon there's tonnes of dust between the fins!

Update as promised.. there was lots of rubbish on the bottom side of the matrix (where you'd expect) between the metal 'guard' and the fins is where it had accumulated:



Hoovered and brushed it out.

Box all back together now and back in the van. I replaced and added insulation where I thought it would help, eg:



With the new motor and the clear out, it is now awesome - very much stronger than before.

Cheers,
Stu

[kevtherev]

There you go I knew it would ... look at all that accumulated crap.

...and a nice clean reinstall,top job mate

[cymru_cowboy]

StuM,
What is the insulation that you've put around the inlet? I've got the whole blower out at the moment and I'm looking to do the same as you around the inlets. I'm just a little concerned about putting something around there that could react badly to heat/time.

cheers

Kieron