Blower motor replacement.

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 2, 2012
Messages
1,622
Reaction score
221
Location
Blue Springs, MO
My Car
1971 Mach 1, Grabber Blue w/Argent stripes. Original 2V 351C Auto, Tilt, rear defog, Black Comfortweave Interior. Under restoration. Original colors, 4V 351C, 4-Speed, Spoilers, Magnums, Ram Air. All Ford parts.
Several projects now that they salted the streets here in Kansas City.

1) Blower Motor - under the dash it squeals when running.  I have a spare but have the following questions.

a) Can the blower motor bearings be lubed in the car?  Will it last?  
b) With the spare I have it is an original.  Should I buy a new one, have it rebuilt, other?

2) Speedo cable.  I have a bounce when it does work, but it works inconsistently.

a) Do the experts feel this is a lube problem, or a connection problem at the dash cluster?

b) There is one spot where it hit the exhaust and has some melting on the cable shielding.  Should I consider a new one?

3)  Passenger door Power Window Bezel - has anyone been able to make the factory clips work.  I don’t understand how they are supposed to hold in the switch body.  Has anyone found an alternate attachment method?

4) Front Bumper refinish.  Looks like my original body man used flex agent in the paint, but not in the primer.  
a)  how much should I expect to pay for a refinish on that.  I own the paint already.

The other projects I feel I understand well enough at this point.

kcmash

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, I obviously started the least popular post on the site. 
 

I will share what  I have learned so far.

1) Yes, the blower can be removed without taking the dash out.  Access just to the right of the accelerator pedal.  The pedal does need to be removed.  As a note, I removed my center stack and console, thinking this would help. I also pulled the drivers side bucket to give room for my fat a$$.

2). There are a couple different part numbers for the blower fans.  The -aa and the -ab.  Due to the contortion it takes to get the fan out, I ordered a new one.  So, now I wait for the part to come in and stretch out after all the contortion.

kcmash

 
So I got a new 4 seasons blower motor with flange today.  Put it in, ran a test, and it vibrates.

Where should I go from here?  Can I bench test the blower motor using a car battery?  How do I balance the rotating assembly?

Should I just find someplace to put new bearings in my original motor?

Any help at all is appreciated..

kcmash

 
Sorry to hear about your new blower.  Could be that it is hitting something in the housing when installed.  Also make sure the blower is tight on the motors shaft.

Yes you can run it off of 12 volts or less.  If you don't want to return it you will need to do a little trial and error to get the blower balanced.    Run the blower out of the car and see if it still vibrates.   If it does then clamp the unit down to a work bench.  Run the unit and "feel" the vibration. 

Start with something very light like a very small piece of sheet metal or anything else you can you bend to make a u clip out of.  I have used folded paper clips before to get started with.  What ever you use you want to make sure that they are on the inside so centrifugal force can't throw them off.  Also make sure they don't stick out past the vanes. Clip it on the inside of the blower and run it again.  Notice if it has made it better, worse or the same.  If better try adding another on that side in the same general area until you get the vibration out.  If worse, move the the clip about 180 degrees and try again.  If it stays the same try adding more weight until it gets worse or better and precede from there .  

With a little trial and error you will be able to get it balance pretty well where the vibration won't be noticeable. Just make sure that when you are done that the clips can't move.  You can use some super glue or a drop of epoxy to hold them in place.   I have done 2 of them over the years and they worked well.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Kilgon, that helps.

kcmash

 
I also had the exact some problems with my speedo cable including a melted spot from hitting the exhaust.  Due to the fact that it is in a metal sheath the melted outside plastic shouldn't hurt it.  Mine problem was a bad connection at the back of the dash cluster along with the way it was routed.  I pulled it out of the firewall and left it go to a natural twist and then ran it back in again.  I also tied it off in the engine compartment to keep it away from the exhaust. 

Good luck on all your other projects.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Found my problem with the blower.

The cage fan is bent.  I checked it and found it out of round.  Since I don’t know how to get it back to round I am glad I have a spare lying around.

So here is my stupid confession.  When taking the fan off my original motor it was stuck.  So I sprayed a little pb blaster on the spindle area and let it soak overnight.  The next day when I picked the assembly up the fan slid right off the motor shaft and the gravity in my garage worked perfectly.  There was no real evidence of damage from the fan taking the 42 inch fall, but it did happen.

So now I am soaking the spare fan with  PB Blaster to get it off of the spare motor.  Hopefully I Han get this one off without dropping it.

With the speedo cable I think that was my problem too.  Not all the way onto the instrument cluster.  So with the revised cable routing you used Kilgon does the cable slant up to the speedometer, or slope down.  I may pull mine back out and rerout while I am in there.

kcmash

 
I will put my suggestions after your questions.

1) Blower Motor - under the dash it squeals when running.  I have a spare but have the following questions.

a) Can the blower motor bearings be lubed in the car?  Will it last?  

The bearings in the motor are the cast type that are self lubing. So no way to really lube them.
b) With the spare I have it is an original.  Should I buy a new one, have it rebuilt, other?

Buy new.

2) Speedo cable.  I have a bounce when it does work, but it works inconsistently.

Most people put the wrong lube on the speedo cable. You only use graphite. They sell little tubes of it at parts house you use in the locks also won't get stiff in cold weather. You will need to pull the cable out of the sheath and wash with brake and parts cleaner, both the cable and the housing. Lube with the graphite going back in.

a) Do the experts feel this is a lube problem, or a connection problem at the dash cluster?

It is usually a lube issue lots of owner's make the mistake of spraying with and oil lube which will not work.

b) There is one spot where it hit the exhaust and has some melting on the cable shielding.  Should I consider a new one?

Could be the issue but try lube first.

3)  Passenger door Power Window Bezel - has anyone been able to make the factory clips work.  I don’t understand how they are supposed to hold in the switch body.  Has anyone found an alternate attachment method?

They do repo the clips I see on Ebay I think $15.00 each. Yes they do work but most get damaged because people pry the bezel off. You should slip a thin blade screw driver from the front and back edges of the bezel right in the middle. You push in on the clips and the bezel will fall off. I had pictures but computer crash lost them. If you go to the WCCC West Coast Cougar Classics web site they use to have some pictures of them might help.

4) Front Bumper refinish.  Looks like my original body man used flex agent in the paint, but not in the primer.  
a)  how much should I expect to pay for a refinish on that.  I own the paint already.

They will have to sand back to clean and start over. Do not have any idea on that but would guess at least two hours to strip back. Then have to prime and sand and then paint. So it will not be cheap. If he did it wrong he should do for free.
I can maybe get some pics of the bezels but I have to find them too many bins of parts. In 73 they went to screws in the bezels much better.


 
Got the blower back in.  It works well.

Center stack is back in, need to find my new pedal rubber and install those and then put the drivers bucket back in.

kcmash

 
Back
Top