Evap blower and motor removal

[gost]

I just did this so while it's fresh in my mind I thought I'd post it to possibly help out others with this problem especially during the summer. I have the factory manuals, Bentley's, TSB's, 101 Projects and the full PET disc and nowhere in any of them does it tell you how to do this removal this way. I had no air coming out of the A/C vents this spring and tried to figure it out. This a link to my original post for the history of the problem and this was the cure. 85 A/C question
It ended up being a seized Evap blower motor in the smugglers box. I pulled just the blower, yes you can do this without evacuating the system or removing the expansion valve or the evap coil section. Just knock loose the 4 PITA clips with a long flat blade screwdriver and hammer and grab them with a needle nose before they are totally off and in the bottom of the cave. then peel back the insulation around the bottom of the valve only, this is to be able to remove the power wire connector when you pull the top of the blower assembly off. You only have to remove the 3 bolts and 1 nut that holds the 2 brackets to the housing. The other 2 bolts secure the motor to the housing once you have it off. If you do take those 2 off you risk dropping the nut thats on the inside. Now you need to pull out gently the capillary tube which is sleeved in a copper tube that's inside the housing and push off to the side. Loosen the clamp that holds the flex discharge duct to the housing. You only need to loosen the one at the housing. Now the entire top of the housing comes off with a little bit of maneuvering and the evap coil is exposed. Now you can flip the housing upside down and remove those 2 bolts I mentioned before which releases the motor housing from the bigger housing. There is a set screw you undo at the squirrel cage shaft and then just flip it and hold the cage in your hands and tap the whole assembly firmly down a piece of wood or anything. That round sleeve that the set screw went into is attached to the cage pemanently so don't try to pry it of the shaft while the cage is on the shaft. It should pop off with a couple of soft slams. Now the motor is attache dto that housing via 4 spring clips and remove them with a flat blade. Now you can twist the motor so that things line up to slip it out of the motor housing. It can only slip out one way, you'll see what I'm talking about. But just before you remove the motor you need to disconnect the power connection and the little clip that holds the wires tight to the motor. You'll see what I mean. Now pull the motor and spin the shaft until it frees up a bit. You can pry off the pressure clip at the shaft end opposite where the cage was just to allow more vertical movement of the shaft to be able to spray it with lot's of electric motor cleaner. Spray the crap out of it everywhere, the pickups the wiring the magnet area everywhere. Keep spinning it the more the freer it will spin. Now lubricate the shaft and the shaft bearing with what you like. I used WD-40 and PB blaster and let it soak in and kept spinning it. It spun nicely after that. An important thing to remember when reinstalling is to make sure you have that copper tube that the capillary slides into in place when you put the housing top back on cause if you don't it will be impossible to stick in without bending it and then the cappilary tube won't slide in and you'll have to remove the housing and stick it in. Now installation is reverse. It's a bit of a hassle to get the flex duct on but use a skinny flat blade to work it on the housing. The bottom of the duct should slip on forst. Now those damn clips. This is what I did. Each clip has 2 holes on them on eithe rend. I thought why and figure the Porsche mechanics have some nifty tool that installs them because they are cursed. I figurd out that I could take a skinny 2 inch long nail and bent the tip into a hook shape and use that to loop in the holes on the clips and then use a pair of needle nose vise grips to hold the nail. It's tricky but you have to hook the bottom of the clip onto the tab on the housing and then yank up with the nail hook and whalla..it's on. Saves a ton of time. Removing the nail maybe difficult and I just left them hooked in the holes for a dreaded next time. They were pretty snug on the clips but if you're worried about rattling then just tape them down. Buttoned it all up and re-pressed the insulation around the valve and power wiring and do this thoroughly because there is a good size opening to cover up. Otherwise you will be drawing in ambient hot sticky air into the system. Man the thing has never blown so hard since I've had the car. It works great. So when your blower motor is screeching or finally seized this is the fix or if the motor has totally fried and you want to replace it then this is how to go about it. The beer somehow tasted a little better today!
Hope this helps some people.

Gordon

[WHCJr72S]

Gordon:
Thanks for the write up. I have to taken mine apart and oil the motor. It makes noise every time I hit a bump.

[gost]

Bill, you're welcome but just wanted to let you know that this little project took me about 5 hours to figure out and do. It should not take you that long with my tips but be prepared for a bunch of time and have the beers handy. You might want to wait until the motor finally seizes because honestly this is not something I look forward to doing again anytime soon.

[BesideTheBox]

Having just replaced the evaporator blower motor (mine smoked through the vents after squeaking and cutting in/out), this post inspired me to try the 'hook' method of spring clip installation. Here's a picture of the bend that I put on a 4d common nail to grab the top of the spring clip and pull it into place with a vise grips. The 'hook' method is easy enough that I may even revisit the 3 tabs that I screwed together - which also worked well, but is not as original.

[Tim Hancock]

I just did mine last night due to some bad squeaking. After I cleaned the motor (which I left attached to the plastic frame), I lubed with moly grease and motorcycle moly o-ring chain lube (which is sticky). The motor bushings had no discernable play, they just must have been dry.
I used safety wire looped thru the top hole of the clips and was able to re-install them by using forceps to position the bottom in place then pulled on the wire to force the top of the clip into place.

I used a vacuum to suck the old crumbling foam blockers out from in between the tube ends of the evaporator. I replaced with some pieces of 1" sq x 6" long foam. This prevents the air from flowing around the exposed tube loops and instead forces the air thru the center of the evaporator.

I also had to replace the large duct tube as it crumbled as I removed it. I used red silicone aircraft scat tube as a replacement.

It blows strong and quiet now!

[gost]

Thats it only I had a little more hook shape to mine. Then I remembered that I had a perfect tool for the job, of course after I finished. It pulls springs onto 2 stroke exhaust mufflers on my dirt bikes.

I'm just not positive it would be easy removing the tool once you get the clip on. I don't mind having left the nails on the clips anyway....for next time.
Glad to see the info helped someone out.