Date:         Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:00:30 EST
Reply-To:     JKrevnov@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rico Sapolich <JKrevnov@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: How bad is replacing the heater blower motor?
Comments: To: ctb1@peoplepc.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Chris,

I've said it many times before, while only some kind of mental defective
would consider the blower motor replacement a fun way to spend a Saturday, it
is not that bad.  The pluses are that the seats slide out without any tools,
the instrument binnacle comes off readily and there is plenty of room to work.

I just did my third one on an '86.  When I thought I was finished, I had no
headlights.  I spent more time undoing the instrument cluster and locating a
well-hidden, insecure, ad lib ground someone had installed than it took to
button up the work.

On the '84 I did, the blower housing was held together with clips, not welded.

Some advice:
1/ Be careful not to lose any of the clips, each one counts and they can all
too easily go boing! and disappear into a black hole.

2/ Plan on replacing the damper gaskets because you will find yours are
history or else they will crumble as you do the work.  I believe these are
available from the dealer or you can do what I did and expend a lot of time
searching for 1/8 inch closed cell foam stock in sheet form.  Replacing the
gaskets makes a noticeable improvement in the heating system.

Rich