Hi folks.
I've posted recently about my fuse/blower motor issue.
With the smoking from the center vents, I decided it wasn't likely to be anything than the motor so I stopped screwing around and ordered the kid from IPD to do the swap.
I followed Art Benstein's excellent guide. Thank you for taking the time to document this.
I decided to remove the dash. It definitely helped in dealing with a number of things.
However, certain things I would do differently if I had to do this again. For example, removing the rubber plugs that hold the dash to the back of the cowl. If you tear one of those up while pulling it or putting it back, you're going to be really mad at yourself. Don't ask me how I know. I have a rubber plug that is now forever part of the cowl. If you have to break something, better be one of the smaller plugs holding the vent piping. Those are easy to get from a junkyard if needed.
Also, I really recommend to not skip the vac pressure testing with a vac pump. Harbor Freight sells a MityVac for $35 (never go there without your 20% off coupon). Testing allowed me to realize that I had forgotten to plug one of the little vac hoses to the heater controls. Pshhhhhh. And I also realized I had switched the hoses for the foot air vents. It does matter which is plugged where because the front and rear foot vent valves work in an opposite manner. The front ones need vacuum to be OFF (no air), while the rear ones need vacuum to be on.
Regarding grinding the plastic tabs to mount the new motor...
My old one was indeed seized by the way, could turn using pliers with difficulty. also, it appears it had already been replaced before with a refurb unit.
Anyway, back to the tabs. I did grind them flush as specified by IPD (it was a bit of a pain, my cheap rotary tool is bigger than a Dremel and was hard to get in there), however, I believe it's a bit too much. It brings the fan blades slightly too close to the housing on the left side and my fan rubs a bit at high speed, making some racket (the motor itself has a low rumble like vibration, but not too noticeable in an idling or running car). I'm hoping that it will eventually wear out. It's much better on level 3 though. I really didn't want to take the motor out again to add washers or something, and I have no idea how the passenger side would respond to that.
Another little tip, if you lose one of the clips down the vent (also, don't ask me how I know). I had some very small rare earth magnets (Harbor Freight sells them for cheap, and I bought them for my woodworking). Just snap a couple of them on each side of a string, and through it down the vent. It will go after the clip and you can just pull it out.
Coming to a question: is it expected that the fan is actually running when the car is idling, even with the knob on OFF?
If the car is off and I just turn the power on, the fan is off until I turn it to level 1-4. However, when the car is started, the fan is always working at a low speed even when the control is off.
Also, my whine due to the fan blades scraping a bit on the left is actually higher when the car is running as opposed to off, at the same fan control speed, as if the fan actually works faster when the car is on.
This job was definitely not the most fun thing I've done, but I'm glad I did it myself. It also allowed me, while everything was off, to discover other issues, and to also do things that no paid mechanic would take the time to do. For example tidy up things, find and fix sources of rattles. I added a lot of friction tape here and there for plasitc on plastic noises, and also discovered that some of the air valves (especially for the defrost) are sources of rattle themselves. I used duct sealant putting around the mounts on those to keep them solid and quiet.
That's all folks...
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