Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:05:00 -0600
Reply-To: Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Subject: Re: WTB: heater switch
In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20041228200426.0b068dc0@pop1.attglobal.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Again, I guess it depends on how you look at it, but the marginal
switches last fine for the first 8 or 10 years.
(I wish as much could be said for the heads and gaskets!)
When the switch fails, it could be considered to be a friendly reminder
that the time was near to take the whole damn thing apart and clean or
replace the heater core, replace the valve, and re-lube or replace the
blower motor. A new switch will fix it temporarily, but will likely last
only a year or so. Subsequent replacements lasted only months for me. My
re-lubing of the blower motor was done on the 82 (diesel) in early 1996,
so it is holding up pretty well.
One other thing I did on the early car was to get a later type push in
fuse holder and get rid of the cheesy ceramic fuse for that circuit.
This would help on any pre 1986 model.
I guess you agree that most all blower motors need re-lubing. That has
been my experience, too.
It is really too bad that the new front heater cores are so expensive.
There is just nothing as good as a new core to put out the heat. In my
82 diesel, the new core put out so much heat that I never even bothered
to fix the Eberspaecher. (No back seat heat, but no seats back there
now!) And, of course, the diesel makes no heat while idling.
Doing it all at once is not really all that bad. In my experience,
getting out the one-time bolts in the steering column support is pretty
easy with a Knipex pliers. Use care pulling out the heater control face
plate. I've broken off the posts from those before. (pretty easy to just
glue the plate back on, though!)
It is really helpful to take several pictures to help get every cable
and wire back where it was originally installed.
If not, you run the risk of having one rattle, which is sometimes very
hard to track down and fix.
The hardest single thing is cutting apart the heater housing. Both of
mine were glued and plastic welded. Careful use of a utility knife cut
it open, but I needed to be really careful to avoid damage to the
housing or myself.
I'd say it would take anywhere from 6 to 8 hours and it might be nice to
have an extra set of hands for the few minutes when you are removing and
replacing the dash sheet metal just to avoid scratching the interior
paint with the edges. (They are sharp!)
When you graduate from Chris's support group, print this out and put it
on your bathroom mirror!
Al Brase
David Beierl wrote:
> At 02:36 12/28/2004, Al and Sue Brase wrote:
>
>> Call me a glass-half-empty guy, but if your fan switch works for 15
>> years and then melts, what is happening here?
>
>
> The switch seems marginal for the load; the circuit definitely is.
>
>> I've replaced them and replaced them and put in 30 amp fuses when the
>> smaller ones burned out. But what was wrong was that the blower motor
>> was drawing to much because its lube was gone.
>
>
> Any idea what they were actually drawing? I measured 12 amps on a new
> blower (running in free air, direct from a 12v battery) and the same
> for two that I unstuck and cleaned up. They weren't turning before,
> so no numbers.
>
>> (This is not a job for
>> the faint of heart!) On taking the blower motor out, it is not
>> serviceable, but I've drilled a hole in each end of the plastic fan and
>> dripped light oil onto the shaft.
>
>
> Or you can press/drive the rotor off the shaft and do a more thorough
> job. But not as you say for the faint-hearted or those without
> mechanical intuition. Incidentally all three that I've worked on had
> brushes in almost-new condition, commutator in fine shape except
> needing the slots cleaned, dry felts, dry bearings.
>
> david
>
>
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