blower seized

[stephen t25]

Hi all, i know the dash has to come out this summer but i have a distant memory of a temporary fix where you drill a hole and lube up the bearings on the motor with a long straw any info very much appreciated(have tried wiki)

[Oldiebut goodie]

Wouldn't be a lot of good if the motor is already seized - when something is seized you need to be able to turn it to attempt to free it up. Lube would only be a temp help when it is still rotating albeit stiffly or squeaking.

[nevill3]

found this in the Wiki

Additional from ghost123uk
Here is some info re the "drill a hole and squirt some grease on the bearing" trick (it usually doesn't work for long though)

I have pic of where you drill the hole. I tried this a few years ago on my van. I drilled 2 holes, one to point a (long) squirty tube attached to my can of aerosol grease through, and another to look through, to see where I was spraying. I also dangled an indicator bulb, with wires soldered to it, down behind the gap that is right at the top of that panel, this helped a lot !! After finishing I simply put some "Gaffer tape" over the holes. It is still safely in place a few years later.
The "fix" only lasted a couple of months though - I then bit the bullet and fitted a new heater motor.
Pic = (Not my van = hope the owner of the pic doesn't mind )

[nevill3]

I thought my blower had seized last year too, but found that the switch was faulty, I would test the switch before you rip out the dash!!

This is from the Wiki too....

BLOWER SWITCH REMOVAL

(Acknowledgtement to 'Fozzie' for this excellent description of switch removal)
If you can get the radio out easily, it's not necessary to remove the instrument pod to remove the main blower switch.
You can remove the heater controls fascia by pulling it gently forward (to ease out the plastic covered lugs at the back which hold it in place) revealing the switch behind. (You'll need to pull the knob off the fan switch first, but shouldn't need to remove the heater knobs.) Next push in the retaining spring at the right side of the switch (either through the hole where the radio was, or from the top if you removed the instrument pod), and pull the switch towards you. At this point you can separate the switch from the connector block behind it. Note it is a tight fit, and as you do this you tend to lift one or more of the four connection tags - more on this in a moment.
You have 4 tags marked +, I, II and III. On mine a voltmeter (set to measure resistance) showed only one worked as it should.
Use the blade of a small screwdriver to open the lugs and prise the switch apart. At this point the whole thing springs up at you and bits fall on the floor. Well, maybe not you, but that's what happened to me. You should end up with: the switch body; the connector inside which rotates and holds the copper contact mounted on springs; two tiny steel slivers with punched points which hold the splined bit of the rotating connector (to give you that pop-pop-pop feel as you turn the knob); and the cap which holds the tags.
Clean off all the contact points with emery paper (a borrowed emery board worked for me) and smear a tiny bit of petroleum jelly on them.
Now to reassemble... First drop the two steel springs into the locating holes in the switch body, ensuring the raised points are facing each other. This is actually easier than it sounds; a SLIGHTLY magnetic screwdriver helps to fit them. Then drop the rotating connector gently into place between them - it might take a couple of goes. This needs to go the right way round; the side of the copper with a tiny a depression goes nearest to the flat part of the otherwise round body. Finally offer up the cap, rotate to line up the flats on cap and body, and press into place.
Check again with the voltmeter. If one of the contacts seems not to work check whether that tag became raised when you separated the switch. If so use a screwdriver to press it firmly down again (so that it makes proper contact with the rotating connector underneath).

[stephen t25]

Many thanks... when i turn the switch im getting a pretty funky electrical motor burn out smell coming through the dash with 30amp fuse when i leave it on

[Oldiebut goodie]

It is past lubrication!

[CovKid]

Don't waste your time drilling a hole. The motor is already 30 years old. Even if you could free it off, by now it'll be drawing huge amps on startup and they become fire risks as owners increase the size of the fuse. I just wish whoever originally posted that, hadn't done so. Its not helpful.

[ghost123uk]

Yes, agreed, I only posted that in the wiki so we had a record of the technique
It did give me a quiet motor for a few weeks (and likely with less amp draw) but it soon went west again, and it's very unlikely to work at all on anything other than a motor with an annoying squeak. I doubt it would do owt for a seized up one.

[Adeybruce]

i'm not pushing my luck with a 25amp fuse am I?

[ghost123uk]

i'm not pushing my luck with a 25amp fuse am I?

I cannot remember now what wire size feeds the motor (it might say in Haynes or Bentley), but I think you might be close there to the current rating of the wire, and that is not a good thing. The fuse is supposed to melt, not the wire

[CJH]

I cannot remember now what wire size feeds the motor (it might say in Haynes or Bentley), but I think you might be close there to the current rating of the wire, and that is not a good thing. The fuse is supposed to melt, not the wire

Haynes says the black+red wire to the motor switch is 1mm2, and Bentley says AWG18, and if they're right then I'd say the wire is already marginal for a 16A fuse, given that it seems to be the old style PVC cable - Vehicle Wiring Products list that thickness of wire as being rated at 8.75A. I recently replaced that wire because the old one had baked a bit from the heat of a poor terminal at the fusebox, so I have a bit of the old wire here - it does seem to measure approximately 1mm2. For a motor that draws 10A when running freely I can't understand why they'd only use 1mm2 for the supply to the switch, but 1.5mm2 for the three wires from the switch to the motor. I used 2mm2 thinwall (listed as 25A by Vehicle Wiring Products) when I replaced mine.

[CJH]

Oh wait - Bentley says that black+red 1mm2 wire was changed to a black+yellow 1.5mm2 wire for the 1986 model. Vehicle Wiring Products don't sell that gauge of wire, but assuming it sits midway between the 1mm2 and the 2mm2 then it should be good for 13A.

[CJH]

Hmm - there's obviously a bit of a factor of safety in those current ratings. This site has a table showing 'Maximum amps for chassis wiring' against different AWG sizes. AWG18, which is about 1mm2, is rated at 16A max, and AWG15, which is about 1.5mm2, is rated at 28A. I don't understand the discrepancy between those ratings and the Vehicle Wiring Products ratings.

[CovKid]

Be interesting to see how I fare myself next Summer when I ditch the resistors that set motor speeds and use a motor speed controller instead. Hoping to put this on the bench and post the video back here this month.

[Oldiebut goodie]

Hmm - I don't understand the discrepancy between those ratings and the Vehicle Wiring Products ratings.

Maximum and SWL.