Club 80-90 Forums

Well, yesterday was fun!! With VWcamperfans help (again) we de-squeaked 2, yes 2, fans in the heaters in my busses. One was particularly noisy, and the other one was just starting to go out in sympathy. So, with Mark leading the way in Ermie, John and I followed in Ritchie! Disconnect battery for safety now.

1. Dash off......only undo the LITLLE screws in front of the dash (or your windscreen wipers will fall off!! ok, the motors will...) Couldn't do it by hand, but the electric screwdriver did the job well. Remove anything mounted on the dash, and the assorted tat that gathers there! Strip the cowling from the instrument panel and remove the instrument panel as well. Remember the fun you had putting the stereo in...well take it out - you get to put it back later! Now the heater control panel and sliders....pull the 3 or four plastic knobs towards you....they come off, honest. Then the switch itself...pull off the bit you turn. Right, with a small screw driver, slowly prise off the cover, bottom left and top right. Slowly slowly here. The three screws (poss 2) to release the slider gubbins from the dash. Got a cigarette lighter....remove the connections. Remove the glove box. Hand underneath at each end, pull off the two air hoses. 2 screws or bolts on the pillar on either side...remove and the dash should now come away. Sorry - missed a bit....the bolts that hold the steering column on. Right - these are special sheer bolts....but we were able to remove and reuse, but you do need decent mole grips, and attack the bolt at the one straight part of the bolt. You don't have to take the steering wheel off....but it did give a little more space to work in.

this is what revealed itself under Ermie's dash


HELP!!!!!!!! Sure there is some genuine original wiring in there somewhere!!

2. Remove the fan heater unit....screws and bolts all over the place. Remove the front grill (yep fixes in from the front too!). IF you have clips around the heater unit, unclip and seperate the box. If not....and we didn't in Ritchie you are going to have real fun working your way around with a small screw driver to get into the thing. PS - you will need some silicone sealant to stick it back together!! Once its unbolted and you are in you get this....


that skinny thing on the bottom right is the resistor that controls the speeds apparently!

3. Oil the bearings. Right in the middle of the picture is the fan. you can see the first bearign you need to oil - its that brown spot in the middle of the fan. A little bit of WD40 followed by a manual spin of the fan will clean any gunk, then a drop or two of engine oil will lubricate that bearing.

Now look round the other side...
You wlll see a plastic drill with letters on it. Now be brave as you are going to drill next to the letters, aiming towards the centre as the other bearing in lurking beneath:


and after drilling (we used a 5mm bit)



Now, with a little screwdriver dipped in engine oil, offer some lubricant onto the bearing....


Give it a good dose....u don't want to be doing this again next year!!!

Spin the fan...drop more oil on both bearings and you are good to go! It should be silent now!!!


Now, put it all back.....oh - just to mention...when we put the dash back, and were at the putting the instruements back, we both found that the speedo cable had gone walkabout....dunno how, but they were both up in the same place....right up under the windscreen....need little fingers to hook it out. May be worth hooking it round something to stop it wandering off!!

Hope this helps someone....there are instructions in the wiki but no pictures!!

Em
xx

Cheers Em,
I'm due to do this task myself over the winter.
Your little guide is most helpful.

Andronicus.

Likewise, cheers.

Ian

No worries, fellas

Em
xx

WIKI'd

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Co ... ater_box_2

Cheers Em and helpers,

Good to see it in pictures, I've got both a siezed fan and plenty of non original wiring. Last time I tried the fan I had a puff of smoke from from a melting scotchlok. I've pulled the fuse now and the fan's joined the list of jobs to be done.

Rich

Also, for those with earlier T25s, the wipers and blower are on one fuse (not great as a fault with either can render the other one out of action). I added a mod to split them from each other here: https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Co ... KILLS_FUSE

Well done you! I think I know what I'm doing this weekend...is no screen blower an mot fail these days?
I know it's certainly a pain in the posterieur...

Blower not working is not a failure but failing to keep your screen clear is an offence. Use of a rubber window clearer squeegy thing would satisfy plod but to be honest, driving without a heater blower in winter is just no fun at all.

More pics and info (Wiki request made to admin) after my stalled attempt:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=76957

Cheers for this info. Blower started sqeeling last week, so I thought I might as well get it done before it seizes.

Took me 5 hours!! in all to get the dash off and open the heater box. Both sheer bolts on the steering column were like cones, no flat bits, (finally managed to hammer an Irwin bolt remover over them) and 2 of the screws holding the dash on were rusted solid, had to resort to careful drilling to get them out (heart in mouth hoping not to damage screen)

Would have taken a couple of days though I reckon if I hadnt had your pics and info to go on

Hopefully it''l go back together and everything will work first time

Gonna do earths, wiper linkage and Covkids mod to fuses for wiper/blower before I re assemble anyway.

Just one question, the hole drilled in the casing for the rear bearing on the blower, do you block it off or just leave it?

Dan

Just leave it! It will make no difference to the efficiency or running of the fan or motor.

Was thinking of doing something similar to the mod on p.2 of this topic with the little blue cap and pipe thingy,

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... ng&start=0

I really really really dont want to go through this too often, so I had already considered options to make up something to re oil the bearings without removing the dash

I did the hole drilling thing to get at the bearing, in fact I drilled 2 holes, one to look through and one to get the thin tube up to the bearing.

I used a bit of that stiff advance / retard tubing fastened to the aerosol tube with the advance retard rubber sleeving

It is pretty essential to have an indicator bulb soldered to the end of a bit of wire, hanging inside that void from the gap at the top, so you can see what you are doing.

As mentioned on that (very friendly ) Samba forum (and I think by Mr Baxter) this is not a proper cure, but if it works for a year or 2 then hey (It worked so far on mine, though I did have to re-do it recently, no big deal - used some more suitable lube this time = moly grease on a stick !!)

All safe to lavish some space foil insulation in there whilst the dash is out?