Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 21:30:35 -0700
Reply-To: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: Front blower fix: Free and permanent (long)
If you're gonna have only one tool in your toolbox, it should be a pair of
Vice Grips brand pliers. The plastic tabs can be clamped down on and
twisted off quite easily. Also the Vice Grips are good for clamping down
on the shear bolts, which (this was discussed at length on-list a year or so
ago) you can replace with good old everyday bolts of the appropriate size.
Karl Wolz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Whitby" <rpwhitby@MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 7:03 PM
Subject: Front blower fix: Free and permanent (long)
Hola Vanagoneers:
At the risk of getting off the enlightening topic of Mexicans and insurance,
I'd like to report my findings vis-a-vis my front blower, and also make
public a modification that I hope will extend the life of my front blower
well into the millenium.
First the symptoms: Turned on blower, it made a horrible scraping noise,
then stopped. The fuse popped shortly thereafter, as did two more. I went
directly to the archives where I learned that I was in for THE DREADED FRONT
BLOWER REMOVAL EXPEDITION wherein hapless Vanagon owners disassemble the
entire dashboard to get to this crappy little DC motor about the size of a
baby's head. I bravely dove in to the job and am here to report that it just
ain't as bad as most make it out to be. Laborious, yes. And damn but the van
do look ugly when all is said and done. Not for the faint of heart. But I
had no problems, other than a shear bolt that refused to budge from the
steering column. I tried JB welding a nut to the shear bolt, but that didn't
hold. Finally I drilled it and used a screw extractor. The metal is very
soft and it came out, but it is of course ruined. (Anyone got a spare?)
Once you get the blower box out, however, you're only about half way home.
The blower is sealed in the box like it was the freakin' arc of the
covenant. What exactly is the point of heat welding this thing together? Is
the air pressure so great it would blow apart if not for this ridiculous
sealing method? I ended up sawing the heat-welded tabs off with a hacksaw
blade and it still took me an hour and a half to get the thing apart.
Overkill? Planned obsolesence? You be the judge.
Once I got the blower out I immediately noticed it was hard to turn by hand.
Bingo. A lot of WD-40 and a little persuasion later and the thing was
spinning like a hippy at a Phish show. I hooked it up to the battery in the
Ghia and it purred on all three speeds. I have a little experience with this
sort of thing. I rescued and kept alive a H*nda alternator for 20,000 plus
miles just by shooting it full of WD-40, and to this day I kept a can in my
C*vic to squirt in the distributor every now and then. H*ndas have a nasty
habit of eating their distributors, so every time I hear the death squeal I
pull over, pop cap and hit it with a generous squirt. Good for another 5k
miles or so.
So I lubed up the old fan motor, then had six or seven beers (congratulating
myself for all the money I saved) and got to thinking: If there was a way to
squirt the old blower motor now and then with some WD-40 it just might last
forever.
So I went to the hardware store and got 3 feet of very small pvc hose, the
clear kind used for fish tanks and such. I drilled a hole just large enough
for the hose in the driver's side windshield vent on the top of the air box.
Passed the hose through that, then drilled another small hole in the housing
right above the blower motor. I carefully positioned the end of the tube
right where I wanted the juice to flow then taped it to the motor. (God
bless duct tape.) Run the pvc hose through the holes and eventually it will
come out of the air vent on the dashboard. Yeah so it will look like an IV
hookup on a chemo patient. Big deal. My fan motor will be loose and yours
won't.
Now every once and awhile, say when I change the oil, I'll give the motor a
squirt. Blow through the hose and I can "aerate" the lubricant. Little
particles all over the place. Look it up in your physics book.
So I figure I save $700 or so by not paying someone else to take apart the
dash, and not buying a new motor from Bus Depot ($100 -- I thought someone
said these motors were cheap).
All in all I'd say that's worth five hours of work.
Bob W.
87 Westy
