Misc Questions - Blower Motor and Instrument Panel

[Guest Anonymous]

Is there a way to pull the blower motor from the heater box, without having to remove the box iteself. I know you can sort of access it from the top, but my fat hands are too big and the hoodlatch bar is in the way. Plus, I can only imagine the pain in the ass it is to get the clips back on?

Blower motor only runs at one speed. What speed it is I do not know. It only works when pulled completely out. Is this in the relay, the switch or the motor?

I also currently have the instrument panel out. I plan on painting the inside bright white to get more out of the bulbs. Any suggestions on paint? Could I paint the outside black to get rid of the flaking? If so, what do you recommend. In addition, what else should I do while I have it apart. I am already trying to fix some connections, as I have a fluttering temp gauge when I turn on the lights and heater.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Guest Anonymous]

The blower motor really can't be removed without pulling the whole unit. However if your motor runs at one speed, you might not need to pull it at all. The fault could be in the switch, which is much easier to get to.

To be honest, there's not much difference between the two or three speeds that the blower provides. If you have a single speed, and dealing with the switch doesn't help, stick with your single speed until you obtain a reconditioned heater box (or get a crappy one and fix it up yourself), preferably next Spring. Then remove the old one and replace with the new one.

Regarding the instrument panel, what part are you painting white? Of course, check to make sure all of the bulbs are working. Make sure there is a ground connection from the instrument panel ground to a clean spot on the car body. That overall ground is probably the single biggest cause of temperature/fuel gauge oddities, and can cause poor lighting as well.

Mike

Mike

[Guest Anonymous]

Painting the back of the panel face. This is just to get better reflection from the lights and to clean up. Was looking at painting the front also to cleanup when looking at the dash. There are 4 bulbs in there but it doesn't appear that bright. I know painting will help, but is not necessarily the solution. Yes, I plan on replacing the bulbs altogether, but think they are just 3w anyways.

[Guest Anonymous]

I have a green/blue wire to the top, green/white wire to the middle, green/red wire to the bottom plugs on the blower switch. Since I do not have wiring diagram that is readable, not to mention electricity/wiring is not my fav gig, is it possible that any of the wires are on the incorrect plug causing the undesired, one speed effect?

Thanks again

[Guest Anonymous]

There should be only two wires going in to the motor. The switch works in conjunction with some resistors, or some other way to reduce voltage, so that varying voltage levels are put across the motor, thus slowing it down from its maximum. First thing to check is whether there is voltage on the wires regardless of switch position. Odds are you're getting voltage on those wires only when the switch is in a single position, and the other two are bad.

You'll need a voltmeter, or at least a light bulb and some wire.

Mike

[Guest Anonymous]

As has been said, the blower motor cannot be removed without pulling the heater box. However, if your motor spins on one switch setting, your problem is not with the motor.

Check at the switch with a meter or test light. The green/blue wire is +12V into the switch; the green/red should be the high speed fan, and the green/white should be the low speed fan setting. The high speed setting circuit runs directly through to the motor, whereas the low speed setting runs through a resistor on the _inside_ of the heater box. Check for +12V at the two outgoing circuits with the switch in the different positions.

If it turns out to be a blown resistor on the low speed circuit, regrettably, you will still need to pull the heater box for the repair.

Chris B.

'73 ex-Malaga

[Guest Anonymous]

Possible.

It's also possible to wire up some resistors that are NOT in the box to slow the fan, but they'll get darned hot.

Scrounge up a good wiring diagram- it's worth a dozen posts!

t

[Guest Anonymous]

these are high wattage resistors imbedded in a ceramic heat sink, very much like the classic automotive ignition "ballast" resistor. I believe I used about a 20 Ohm resistor, on the low fan speed circuit. I wanted the fan to be barely spinning, just enough to move a bit of air into the car when the car is not moving (e.g., in traffic). Works great.

Chris B.

'73 ex-Malaga

[Guest Anonymous]

I'll tell you though, if the car is running you could never tell. You can barely here it over the fuel pump when just the accessories are on. I guess high is what I need. The resistor must be similar to Chris' below as it will barely blow air as he stated below.....

I still have issues, as there is barely any airflow through the vents, but I assume I just need to shore up the connections and look for holes. Any ideas on this?

Thanks for all of the help

[Guest Anonymous]

crawl under the dash with a flashlight and operate the lever that opens the footwell vents while watching their action up inside the heater with a flashlight. The doors are right on the heater box itself so are easy to see moving. If they're not moving, you have a broken cable (which, of course requries pulling the heater to repair). There's also a second heater door, and it's operated by the same control lever that moves the hot water valve. It's the "cold air mixer" door, and admits additional outside air in reverse proportion to the hot water valve setting. When your water valve is set to hot, the mixer door is completely closed; when the valve is set all the way cold, the mixer door is fully open. If you look at the heat control lever from under the dash, there are two cables connected to it; that's what the second cable does.

Have you tried oiling the blower motor to make it run a little faster? You can just reach the upper motor bearing using an oil can with a long, flexible spout. First remove the plastic cover on the motor's upper end, visible from inside the heater plenum chamber under the hood. With patience and a really long oil spout, you can work it around the fan blades and give the lower bearing a squirt of oil.

Good luck

Mike