Changing a blower motor

[fasterthanu]

Hey guys, got a 76 vette. How bad is it to change the blower motor on it? The service manual really doesn't show it for a vette. How is it to get to the bolts? My blowermotor blows like crap on high, so I ran a wire from the battery to the blower, blows, but nowhere near what it should be. You can hear it too, not very strong. Thanks.

 

[Ken]

Damn! And I thought you were going to put a Jimmy on it. :L

_ken

Wait a minute, you might think I meant "Jimmy Hat". No, I meant GMC, as in 14-71. :L

 

[cruzer99]

Geee.......I was thinking just remove the hood, disconnect the tranny, and pull the motor, how hard could it be.........then I came too. :duh

 

[69MyWay]

it is not too bad. You just have to kind of stand on your head to reach back into the passenger firewall area and pull it.

 

[resto75]

Make sure the problem isnt the high speed relay before you start with the blower motor. It's the small oblong metal cased relay with 3 ( i think ) wires going to in. Should be on the firewall near the blower. When mine went out I had NO high speed on the blower just slow and med. It shut off in the high speed position. When I looked at the bottom of the relay all the posts for the wires were loose, where I assume the relay fried itself internally.

Another problem can be trash in the passageway. If you look in at the top of the fender on the passenger side at the base of the windshield there should be a screen there look behind the screen and you should be able to see the blower fan cage. Leaves and trash get in there. Also there is a vacuum operated door there that should open and close with the different blower settings.

 

[fasterthanu]

i do think the relay is bad too, but, if you disconnect the wire from the relay going to the blower motor, and connect a live wire directly from the battery to the blower, it has to blow at high speed. Mine does blow harder, but, it really doesn't sound too powerful. Sounds weak still... If it's a headache to change, i will just live with it for now and go with changing the relay. Unfortunately, my vacume opperated doors aren't working anymore, just started up recently, so i just kinda tied the door shut until i get some warm days up here.

 

[resto75]

I would change the relay and see what happens, it's the easy fix. Then if it still doesn't work right do the motor. If I remember a blower motor is only about 28 bucks at the auto parts store and the relay was 18 bucks. I think the vac control for the door is behing your pass kick plate or just above it.

Good luck with it. Roy

 

[SLICKMAN]

Most of the C3 blower motors suck (They should blow :L ) and a blower from an 87 GMC van fits and blows much better. A few members on another forum have made this switch. I plan on doing this in the spring when I do some maintance on my AC..

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Slickman,

I would be interested in doing this as well. Any chance that when you do it you could take digital pictures, part numbers, descriptions, etc. for others?

Bob

 

[Lee74C3]

If no "HI", check the in-line fuse. It is under the left side fender (sort of) just forward of the master cylinder. There are many other posts for a bunch of other issues related to poor HVAC performance. This is a multi-faceted problem. You have to work the issues one-by-one.

 

[SLICKMAN]

Sure, no problem.... I'll take some digital pics when I do it and post them. Won't be till the spring sometime.. Matter of fact, I'll post a message here and put all the pics on my web page.

Slickman,

I would be interested in doing this as well. Any chance that when you do it you could take digital pictures, part numbers, descriptions, etc. for others?

Bob

My Web page

 

[Bob Chadwick]

Great. Blower volume is an issue with these old cars and if you document it well enough others will try. Beware, you become recognized as the CAC expert on the issue.

 

[thesurvivor]

My blower motor in my '73 quit blowing at all. It's all untouched original. I'm checking fuses and relays, but..........I'd like to know how to remove it. Do I need to pull the radiator overflow bottle? Can I get at it from under the car better? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[wipeout]

To remove blower motor you have to remove the radiator supply tank. Disconnect wires and screws from blower motor and remove.

That should be all that is needed.

 

[thesurvivor]

Thanks, wipeout! As soon as the temp gets below 100F around here I'll do the work I need to do...

 

[Bill75]

a blower from an 87 GMC van fits and blows much better. A few members on another forum have made this switch.

Do you happen to have a link to a discussion??

Thanks

 

[F4Gary]

My ammeter goes full scale to the right when I go to high on my blower switch. All other positons seem normal. Is that the resistor. I'd be interested in the '87 GMC blower discussion too.

 

[F4Gary]

bttt

 

[crause]

Ok, reading this thread gave me the motivation to go out and pull the blower motor since the high speed went out last night. Here is a blow by blow (pardon the pun). First I removed the radiator overflow bottle, three bolts accessed through the wheel well above the tire (rt. front). It was a litte tight but was able to wiggle the bottle out of the engine compartment. Next I used a 1/4" drive to remove the sheet metal screws holding the fan motor in.
Unhooked all the wires(did this first) and pulled the motor right out. One of the easier projects yet. The problem is that I went to my local O'Rielly and bought a new blower motor for an 87 GMC van but it doen't fit. When I put the squirrel cage on it did not fit back in the hole. When I checked the new motor, I noticed that the motor housing protruded more in the new one than the old one. Back to the drawing board. I am going to do some more research hear but I sure hate to go back with a new original and have the same low volume problem.

 

[Whiplash]

Ok, reading this thread gave me the motivation to go out and pull the blower motor since the high speed went out last night. Here is a blow by blow (pardon the pun). First I removed the radiator overflow bottle, three bolts accessed through the wheel well above the tire (rt. front). It was a litte tight but was able to wiggle the bottle out of the engine compartment. Next I used a 1/4" drive to remove the sheet metal screws holding the fan motor in.
Unhooked all the wires(did this first) and pulled the motor right out. One of the easier projects yet. The problem is that I went to my local O'Rielly and bought a new blower motor for an 87 GMC van but it doen't fit. When I put the squirrel cage on it did not fit back in the hole. When I checked the new motor, I noticed that the motor housing protruded more in the new one than the old one. Back to the drawing board. I am going to do some more research hear but I sure hate to go back with a new original and have the same low volume problem.

I did the same thing. I made a 1 inch spacer out of plywood that I cut with a jig saw. It's a clean fit. You can spray the wood black so it's not noticeable. Also check the vent tubes under the dash to make sure they're not leaking where they fit together. That will help with the volume as well.

Mine did not blow as well as I would have liked. In the rebuild I found all the vent tubes under the dash were loose with no seals. Also I think I have a bad resistor for the high circuit. The motor and fan will fit and work with the spacer though.