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Date:         Tue, 1 Dec 2009 09:29:51 -0800
Reply-To:     Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      FRONT HEATER / BLOWER FAN - Removal Instructions - EXTREMELY VERY
              LONG
Comments: To: Cecil Eastman <ckelmo1@COMCAST.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hi Cecil and other listees fighting an oncoming cold in your Vanagon. For a noisy blower fan, you may be able to limp along and lubricate it but it is only a quick fix.  Chances are you will need to replace the blower or other heater components in the future. I have an archive instruction from the past for you to use in splitting and removing the heater box attached below. Read on and ask any questions if it is not clear.  First many thanks to David for helping me out with my first heater Job: David Beierl -- dbeierl@attglobal.net has been a great resource and wealth of information on how to do this for me. He even shipped out FedEx those darn 11 clips to me. This is a fairly easy job as far as Vanagons are concerned but be ready to spend the weekend. Before you get started with this project  you may also want to order those darn 11 clamps at your VW dealer. They are VW Part number 321 819 059  and you will need them to reseal the heater unit. Having the  Bentley guide will also be helpful. Below are some basic instructions for doing the job: Disconnect the battery: You will be working without the dash and with exposed “hot” terminals so it is best to disconnect the ground connection.  To do this move the passenger seat forward, remove the plate under the rear of the seat protecting the battery and loosed the ground connection.  Pull the ground wire off the terminal and fasten it so that it does not flip back and touch the battery terminal again. Instrument cluster removal: Pull the dash cover off, by pulling from the base at the front.  The cover is clipped in with springs.  You will have the instrument panel exposed and you will need to remove all the wiring plugs to the switches and the one underneath the cluster. There are 4 Phillips #2 screws holding the plastic tab of the instrument cluster. Be careful, these tabs can get brittle with age. They will break and shatter.  Once the 4 screws are loose / out the cluster will wiggle and you can now remove the rest. Wiggle your hand behind the speedometer and unclip the speedo cable.  Just squeeze the single clip on the connector and it will slide out.  The cluster is now really loose and you will see one long connector underneath that slips into the bottom connector.  Next pull out the switches by pressing the tabs to release them from the cluster.  The cluster should lift out and remove the big wire connector plug. This will provide you room to get under the dash board. Put the cluster in a safe place that you will not sit or lay other components on. Vent lever removal: Release all the vent levers. If you pull on the black slider control knobs they will work off the lever.  You may need to spray some silicone to juice things up.  They break!!! be gentle and patient. Once you pull these off, you will be able to remove the face plate. It hase two plastic pins - that break and can be brittle - wiggle that off and you will be able to see the mounting nut after the lever panel is removed. I would recommend using a thin strong tool like a metallic plaster knife/scraper to wiggle under the plastic face plate and slowly work the plastic pins out.  Juice it up to help the wiggling.  there are two pins holding this on the dash. One in the upper right and one in the lower left.  They break!!! be gentle and patient. You may have to remove the front and rear heater fan switches/control as well. Also remove any auxiliary wiring on the dash that you may have added on yourself. Radio: Remove the radio – you are on your own here Remove the Glove box: press the retaining tabs at the top back end and lower the box to the floor board. Slide it off its pivot.  Be careful not to press the retaining tabs to much or too hard, they could be brittle and break. Syncro dash plate: (Applies to SYNCRO Model) Remove the Syncro dash plate and Differential lock switch(es). Steering column: Remove the two bolts holding the steering column to the dash frame. These are safety bolts without a head because it is meant to snap off when the bolts have been torqued at the factory. I used a pair of vise grips and was able to turn these bolts loose. I replaced them with normal bolts. I think they are a thread of 8x1.25 mm and 25 cm long.  There are two other 8x1.25 bolts on the lower end of the steering column. Loosen those to give it some play. The steering column will drop/lower to the driver’s seat and that is ok and out of the way. Dashboard attachment: Unbolt the dashboard – a.  6 or 8 #2 Philips head below the windshield - these could be rusted so use your charm and tools. b.  4 bolts along the door jams.  You will need to be able to open the doors wide enough to get your wrench/screwdriver/bolt driver in there c.  there are two metal U-Shaped brackets on each side of the master cylinder holding the dash to the frame.  There are two 10mm bolts within this U shape bracket located at the top of the dash and at the bottom.  You will need to use your fat fingers and hold a wrench in there to loosen these.  I loosen the lower ones first and was able to wiggle each bracket to help loosen the upper bolts. Dash removal: Ok the Dash should be loose and ready to pull off. a. Lift it up slowly and check what else is still wired and connected, like the cig lighter, glove box light or AC switches. You will have to unplug all. b. I did it by myself but with an extra person it sure is easier to lift and pull the dash out one side or the other. Review the heater unit: With the dash out you can now see the heater unit shell. a.  Fastening clips: Check to see if there are black metallic clips (11 of them) snapping the upper half of this heater together.  This is an indication that your heater has been pull out and separated once before for service.  If there are no clips then this is the first time this heater unit is being serviced.  There is a smooth factory mold gluing the upper and lower half of the heater unit sealed from the factory.  You will have to run a blade or knife along this edge to separate the two halves.  Make sure that you order the 11 clips available only at the VW dealers. It will be tough on a Sunday afternoon to find these at NAPA.  They cost about $2 or so. VW part number 321 819 059 b. Heater unit support: Ok the heater unit is held in place by 4 fat Philips #3 screws, into the firewall. Spray some lubricant before you try this at home.  Depending on the year of your van there could be 2 long #2 philips accessible from the outside firewall by the headlights. You will have to remove the front upper grill to get to these.  Once you remove the grill you will see against the firewall just the Phillips head holding a felt or soft washer.  These should be the upper supporting screws for the heater unit. They may be rusted to where you cannot get your screwdriver into it. Just work it and don’t strip it or rush this part.  On the inside the screws should be easier.  You may need a long Phillips #3 screwdriver. David Beierl adds: The big M6 screws holding the heater box in are Phillips #3.  What I've actually done is use the longest #3 I could get, and clamp one of the special Vise-grips made for hex nuts on the plastic handle to turn it with, then lean into the end with as much body weight as I can manage to keep the driver from coming out. With that combination I could get enough force in there to either remove the screw or twist the head off -- not as good obviously but far better than buggering the head of the screw. There are two additional #3 philips screws up in the frame support of the heater at the bottom holding a small L-shaped bracket.  Remove either the screws or the 10mm nut off the brackets. c. Coolant hose removal: You will also need to remove the coolant hoses coming up from the housing to the heater core.  Be neat and try to capture any coolant drips before they get to the rug.  I used lots of newspaper rags and paper towels.  Not too much came out when I did this, but the heater core is full of coolant so be careful when you take the actual heater unit out be aware that some coolant may drip. I put a couple of corks in the pipes to keep them as sealed as I could. Removal out of the van: Ok the disassembly is complete you are ready to take the heater unit out of the van for the service.  Again plug the coolant pipes from the heater core and also the hoses to not loose too much coolant on the front rug in the van. Also keep all of the control wires hooked up so that you see where the flap controls go. Servicing the Heater Unit: a.  Separate the two halves: with the heater unit in your work area (kitchen sink or garage floor) you can now separate the shells and get to the big resistor, fan motor or heater core .  See the seam between the two shells and try to run a knife or a blade along that seam.  Be patient and work it slowly to not damage anything internal and yourself. Refer to the Bentley instructions if you think that will help. Again make sure that you have the VW engineered clips to buckle these two halves once you are ready to re install. b. Replacing the Heater Fan:  With the two halves split you can now service the fan motor.  I recall that it easily comes out and is held in with rubber inserts/bushings.  You will probably have to remove the squirrel cages from you old motor and insert them on the new motor.  It may take a very small Allen wrench for that… don’t know? Forgot? Mark the orientation of all the parts to fit back in place properly and in the right direction. Refit the new fan motor and test it out with a 12-volt source.  Make sure it works and spins in the correct direction. c. Wiring the Heater Fan/Ballast Resistor:  Once separated you will have access to the heater fan blower, the heater core and the heater fan ballast resistor.  . The wires are connected/soldered to the big resistor- the Ballast Resistor. The resistor takes the 12 Volts and reduces the voltage down to provide low and medium fan speeds. High speed is direct 12 volts and bypasses the resistor.  So you may have High speed only and no low and medium if the resistor is bad. If the resistor is cracked or blackened it will need to be replaced as well. Test it out on all three speeds. Make sure that the ballast resistor is good, now's the time to replace it.  To test the 3 speeds and ballast resistor you will need a 12v power supply/battery, the fan  switch and some wire.  Ground from the 12v power to ground connector on the  motor.  12v to the input of the switch.  Wires from the ballast resistor to the switch.  Wire from the ballast resistor to the  motor. Switch all three positions.  Low and Medium speeds pass through  the ballast resistor, High speed is direct 12 Volts  You will also note the three or four wires coming from the switch to the big resistor.   Do you soldering tricks and remember where the yellow, brown, black wires go.  The resistor for the heater is different than the resistor for the radiator fan, which is green and different amperage and wattage.  The heater one is grey.  It has the following part number on it: 171.905.051.B  with the additional markings of  CF21X80W   < I read that to be 80 watts  hot hot hot Two other numbers are: O.7 Ohms - 1.4 Ohms (Low and Medium resistance) There are three poles and wires soldered on. It has a fat yellow wire on one end a fat yellow/black in the middle and a white wire on the other end.  These 3 wires plug to the blower motor and running out of the heater unit to the round black female socket plug on the dash for the fan switch.  d. Front Heater core servicing:  You may choose to service other components of the heater unit such as the heater radiator core of the vent flaps.  You can check the heater core for any leakage, which you could have smelled as sweet maple syrup prior to taking this job on. There should be signs of corrosion if the core is leaking. You can remove the heater core and flush it out or look for any signs of leaks.  In which case it would be very very wise to change the heater core as well if it shows any signs of leakage.     The front Vanagon heater cores from VW are No Longer Available--have been for about 3 years.  This ad on TheSamba provides a good replacement  http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=830594 e. Vent Flaps Servicing:  (Excerpts from Frank Condelli with my comments) While you are at it, check the foam seals around all the flaps. The foam seals on the flaps originally covered the  entire flap. These are usually burned out after 10 + years in service, and may need to be replaced.  You cannot get this from VW so you have to custom make this. All that is really needed is around the perimeter where the  flap touches the edge of the box to make a seal.  Remove all the flaps from  the housing.  One set of flaps will require removing the glued on cover  plate which can be reinstalled with small screws, the screw holes are already  there.  Once the flaps are out, you can make replacement foam seals.  I made all the replacement seal  from foam pieces that I had laying around from old packaging.  Remove all the old  glue that is left from the original foam.  Get "Weather Shield" peel and  stick foam insulation for use around windows at the Home Depot or similar place,  1/4" T x 3/8" W and or 3/16" T x 3/8" W. Get both sizes and see which works  best.  I think I used the thinner thickness on the flaps and the thicker  one around the motor and heat exchanger.  Install it around the  perimeter of each flap where the flap will touch the edge of the box on the side  where the old foam was. Re-install the flaps.  Use the same peel and  stick insulation around the motor and heat exchanger in the same place where it  was after removing the old one of course.  The important flaps to check are the lower flaps.  This seal is what stops the outside from coming into the cab and warming up the Van in the summer time.   Reinstallation:  OK you are done. I'm done, I can’t think of anything else at the moment. Refit the heater flaps, the heater core, the fan motor and cage, the resistor and reassemble the two halves using the 11 clips. If you look carefully you will  see there is a specific location for these 11 clips. and maybe a little silicone glue. Refit the heater unit in the van, refit the coolant hoses on the heater core. Check the vent cabling to ensure that all works well inside the box. Refit and remount everything in reverse order like it says in Bentley and you should be golden. Fill the coolant and bleed the circuit as described on the list or in Bentley. Flush the air out and you are set. Hope this helps,   Joel Cort   Joel_Cort@yahoo.com Rochester NY. 89 Syncro Westy (CinnabarVan) 87 Syncro Transporter (Stella) 73 Westy Campmobile (agent orange) LiMBO representative for the Western New York region. Founding Member of the Empire VW Camping Club & Westies at Watkins - www.westies-at-watkins.org ________________________________ From: Cecil Eastman <ckelmo1@COMCAST.NET> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Sent: Tue, December 1, 2009 9:25:27 AM Subject: Blower Fan troubles O Esteemed Listees, The bus's blower fan has become a better noisemaker than an instrument with which to move around warm air.  So now I've got to get inside the heater box and either repair it (probably not possible) or replace it (more likely). 1.  What's the best way to access the heater box?  According to the Bentley's, which is lacking detail on this issue, I've got to crack open the heater box.  How much of the dashboard do I need to remove to get to the box? 2.  Bentley's says that once the box is opened by breaking the welds I'll need some clips to re-seal the box.  My FLAPS has no such article in stock.  Anyone know of a supplier or a good substitute method of re-sealing the box? Thanks in advance, Cecil '85 Westy "Der Brotkasten"


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