Club 80-90 Forums

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 )

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).

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

ghost123uk wrote: 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 wrote:Hmm - I don't understand the discrepancy between those ratings and the Vehicle Wiring Products ratings.