AC Blower REplacement - 07/08/2006

The AC blower motor in the Lemans was finally giving up the ghost. Nasty whines, less than adequate airflow, creaking, etc. It was annoying when driving arond stoplight to stoplight. I had put this job off for 3 years due to being afraid of having to remove the outer fender and hood to get to the blower motor. But then I heard you can remove the inner fender and avoid all of those problems.


And we begin! Car in the garage!


The inner fender, the blower motor is behind here and NOT accessible from the top (for whatever reason).


The only inner fender mounts present on the Lemans.


The sheer amount of dirt that gets caught between the two fenders can really cause some rust problems.


Loosen the 3 bolts on the outer fender and remove the inner fender seal bolts and it is possible to wiggle the inner fender out!


The inner fender comes out!


The blower motor comes out without a problem.


Giant hole! Nothing spectacular was inside (a good thing). The original factory seal is apparently still in place.


All the bolts necessary to be removed. The blower uses 5 screws to hold it in place (5/16 socket removes them) and a 6th screw that is slightly smaller that threads into the motor for the ground wire.


Must remove the squirrel cage to put it on the new blower. These aren't made anymore, so I had to be extremely careful. Lucky it was in great shape.


Install the cage onto the new blower motor. It's a 100% identical to the 35 year old factory piece.


Blower motor is installed and ready for test. Silicon sealer is used to seal the motor since I don't have a gasket to replace the factory one.


Blower motor is finished. The kit said that the motor didn't need cooling and it was okay to plug the two holes, but I don't trust them and let it get cooling anyway. Rubber that stays out of water and sunlight for 35 years actually is in pretty good shape.


A final view that isn't generally seen...

Upon inspection of the old motor, the windings are in REALLY nice shape, but the bearings are shot. It is hard to turn by hand and groans quite terribly. The new one is easy to spin and in good shape. Testing it actually blows slightly better than the original and makes zero noise. The best part of the whole job is that it took less than 90 minutes to do. So self, don't freak out in the future over a job like this.

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Last updated July 8th, 2006