Climate Control fan replacement w/o r&r the air box.

Sat Jun 19 10:54:07 EDT 2004

Well, Bernie, there's one guy who advocates cutting into the plastic of the
heater core box and then patching the hole with some sort of epoxy tape.
Far worse than the steak knife method, in my view.  The following is a post
that I thought summerized everything the best of all I'd read.

Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:51:17 CDT Subject: (Fwd) Revised blower
replacement Author: Al Powell
(http://www.ezlink.com/~powells/blowerfix.html) For the record, here's the
fan/blower replacement procedure. Original from Eric Fletcher,
modifications by Frank Bauer (fjb). I have eliminated the references to
Eric's famous steak knife, as it's not really required. Notes I would add:
1) Remove all cable ties which appear to be in your way. The clipped ends
on some of them really cut up my hands!! 2) You WILL need split ring pliers
to get the split ring/circlip off the end of the fan motor. This ring
retains the motor in the blower housing. This is obvious when you see it;
it's on the driver's side of the housing. HINT: wait to remove it until you
have the heat housing pried upwards. It's MUCH easier to reach then...but
DON'T let the split ring fly off to god-knows-where when it comes loose! 3)
Protect the fenders while doing this. You will be leaning over them a lot
and jean rivets, etc can scratch them easily. 4) The old blower has a
plastic cover on the back end. After removing the blower, if there is no
plastic cover on the rearmost half of the motor, look inside the blower and
make sure the housing has come out - it often sticks inside. If it's there,
it will look like three wide fingers pointing toward the open side of the
blower housing. Just reach in and pull it out - you can't put the new
blower in place till this is removed. I have also added a few notes to Eric
and Frank's comments. Original from: fjbauer at dsavm.e-mail.com Date: Thu, 18
Jul 1996 20:20:26 EDT Subject: 5000 blower and steak knives Subject: 5000
blower and steak knives Here is the post from Eric. I have made a few
edits/additions - I just performed this procedure. (My changes marked with
"fjb>") Frank Eric's post begins... Well I finally got around to doing the
heater blower in my beast. With this method you only have to raise the
blower box up about 3 inches, and it can be done in about half an hour. Al:
If you don't have Eric's magic fingers, est= 2.5 hours. Tools required: 2
Flat bladed screwdrivers one short and one of the MONDO varitey. 1 Short
Phillips head screwdriver 10mm socket 13mm socket 3" and 9" extender bar
and Ratchet Outside Snap ring pilers Remove wiper blades with the 10mm
socket. fjb>It's a 13mm fjb> watch for the spring washer under the nut when
you pop the blades loose. Remove the black plastic shield with the Audi
Logo on it. fjb> careful popping the clips or you'll crack the shield.
Remove the wiper assembly (one bolt per wiper, one on the motor, one
electrical connection) 10mm Socket here, You might want to lube the linkage
while it's out.... fjb> You might want to vacuum all the crap out of the
area at this point Al: DO IT!!! There is more crap in there than you'd
believe!! Remove the Heater box Retaining strap with the phillips driver.
Remove the Upper Radiator hose to dump about 1 quart of coolant and
reinstall; this will prevent a mess in the next step. Remove the Heater
core supply and return lines. Remove the Electric plug and Outside Snap
ring from the back of the blower motor. Al: There is also a large washer -
don't forget it when putting it back together! Shove the round Black Blower
duct (passenger side) into the heater box. fjb> ...up to the bellows Take
the small flat bladed screwdriver and run it around the seal on the the
firewall to loosen it. fjb> just need to pry it loose here and there -
enough so it will move some. Al: Agreed. It will come loose with a firm,
persistent pull.... fjb> now go into the passenger compartment and remove
the lower panels, console panels and footwell ducts from both sides. Also
remove corrugated ducts for upper vents from both sides. Now everything
will move freely enough for the next step. Take the MONDO Driver and pry
between the engine bay firewall and the blower housing to raise the housing
3". fjb> raise the housing enough so that the Black Blower duct will clear
the black A/C heat exchanger box. It may help to do some of this from
inside the passenger compartment since there is much left/right clearance
here. the blower housing can be tilted up slightly on the passenger side to
acheive the necessary clearance. Al: I did all my prying on the engine
side. Careful not to bend the firewall foreward of the heater housing, and
DON'T pry where the AC tubing is under your prybar!! With the housing
raised take the steak knife and cut the black blower duct so that it can be
compressed on itself and slid futher into the blower box duct. fjb> ***skip
the last step*** Al: Agreed. It can be shoved back far enough that this is
unnecessary - You only have to get it clear of the AC box. Remove the 2
visible phillips head screws holding the blower duct adapter onto the
blower housing. fjb> Rremove all three screws - you may need a long
phillips for the lower one. Al: I don't see how Frank reached this with a
long screwdriver. I managed it using a stubby Phillips and prying the
heater housing WAY up. If I had needed to, I would have broken the screw
free, but it was not necessary. However, I could NOT get the third screw
back in when re-installing this part...so I just left it out. Eric: Take
the MONDO screwdriver and break the lower screw out of the blower housing.
fjb>[and Al] ***skip the last step*** Remove the duct adapter. Remove the
blower motor cooling hose. Push the blower out of the housing through the
duct hole. Install as they say is the reverse of the removal. Use the RTV
or Silicone to seal the blower housing back to the firewall. That's it. I
did this in Half an Hour by myself in 30F weather. fjb> skip the RTV part -
add 1 hour to your time estimate. Al: Don't believe them. Allow 2-3 hours.
It took me 2.5. And the sealant on the box was sticky enough that I didn't
use any RTV - it appeared to me that the seal was still good. fjb> Wwhen
lowering and repositioning the blower housing, make sure the oval rubber
grommet/hose thingy on the bottom lines up with the opening atop the
transmission tunnel. fjb> muchas garcias to stediric! Al: Lotsa Dankes to
both gents! 

At 07:31 AM 6/19/2004 -0700, Bernie Benz wrote:
>I've removed and repaired several 44 chassis fans but have always removed
>the air box to do so, a real PITA.  Can't find the past posts by those that
>have sucessfully squeaked the fan assembly out of the box in situ.  I now
>have a noisy bearing when on AC.  Please repost or explain again.
>
>Thanks,  Bernie
>
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