Type-44: Help removing heater/vent assembly?

[Eric_R_Kissell at whirlpool.com]

Search on "steak knife" and you will find it.  I post this procedure about
3 times a year, so I know it is in there.

HTH, Eric Kissell

Here is my reference (I have added comments inside Al's post below, ERK):

From: "Al Powell" <apowell at agcom.tamu.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:51:17 CDT
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:
è       Remove all cable ties which appear to be in your way. The clipped ends on
some of them really cut up my hands!!
è       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!
è       Protect the fenders while doing this. You will be leaning over them a lot
and jean rivets, etc can scratch them easily.
è       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
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!!
·       [SKIP THIS STEP] 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:
·       [SKIP THIS STEP] 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.
[ERK] If you are doing the core too, just leave the blower in for now.
[ERK] To get to the heater core you need to remove the blower housing from
the car. Just unhook all of the vacuum hoses and cables and it will come
on out. It may be tight working it past the AC lines.
[ERK] Once the blower housing is free, you must open it up by pulling the
two halves apart. To do this you must pry off the clips you will see
around the center clear around. You must also free some of the flap
mechanisms so that the halves can come apart. Then get a really long
phillips screwdriver and undo the screws that are holding the middle
together. There are 2 or 3 of these that are buried down at middle of
things, and it takes a really long screw driver to reach them from the
side clear down in the center of the housing. I made a long scredriver by
using a long socket extension with a deep socket that matched a phillips
driver bit from a power screw driver.
[ERK] Once the housing is in two halves, remove the old core by
cutting/peeling the adhesive from the end where the hoses attach. Then,
slide it out and slide in a new core. I did not reseal the adhesive aroung
the new core because it looked like the foam seals on the new core would
seal things up ok.
[ERK] The hardest part about reassembly is lining up the ends of all of
the flaps you had to free to separate the blower housing into two halves.
Patience and a few choice words got me through it.
[ERK] When installing the new blower motor you must line the slot up
properly so the motor will slide into the housing.
·       Install as they say is the reverse of the removal.
·       [SKIP?] Use the RTV or Silicone to seal the blower housing back to the
firewall. fjb> skip the RTV part Al: 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
That's it. I did this in Half an Hour by myself in 30F weather. - fjb> add
1 hour to your time estimate. Al: Don't believe them. Allow 2-3 hours. It
took me 2.5..
fjb> when 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.