Blower Motor

[Greg M]

Okay friends and neighbors, i thought i would give my insight into replacing the heater blower motor. I have an 87 but i am pretty sure you can use this on any classic.

When my blower motor went out, i read all the posts about pulling the heater unit. Being inherently lazy when it comes to stuff like this, i decided there had to be a better way. And there is - you can go through the top of the dash and leave the heater unit in place.

Now, i know there are plenty of you out there that are going to tell me that i should have replaced the heater core while i was at it. And you're probably right, i may live to regret it. But, again i wasn't interested in pulling the core, and i figured i will take my chances.

So, here's what you do. First remove the instrument binnacle. you will need to remove the facia cover below the sterring wheel and there are four bolts holding it on. Obviously you will need to disconnect the speedo cable and the wires. Then remove the front air vents and remove the vent facia (with clock, mirror controls, etc.). Remove the radio and the surround and then remove the cover where the heater controls are. Once you've done this, you can pull the panel (which also houses the evaporative unit for the AC) forward enough to get a socket wrench under the glove box/oh shit bar. Remove the bolts holding the oh shit bar and glove box. Then you will able to remove the top dash and expose the heater motor. Now, there is part of the bullk head that forms over the top of the motor and unfortunately you will need to cut the part surrounding the motor. Now i know some of you are thinking - no you don't want to cut that because it will weaken the dash, grab bar, etc. And i thought the same thing. But in reality it won't. I thought about fabricating a metal strap for support but i decided to forego it and honestly you can't tell any difference. The motor is still a royal PITA to get out -but this is mainly because the fan unit on the 87/88 is almost a foot long.

Anyway, start to finish was only 3 hours (which included figuring all this out as i went) which is a whole lot better than the 7 to 8 hours claimed by most folks pulling the heater unit.

Hope this helps.

[roverthen]

Thanks for the info. My blower is making some weird noises and vibrations. I'm getting ready to replace it.