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Tell me its not the blower motor!
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psych-illogical
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've currently got my dash torn apart to replace a very squeeky blower motor. My resistor is 'hard wired' in. i.e.; the three wires are soldered onto it. Wasn't planning on replacing it. I'm just waiting on the (VERY expensive) heater core to show up. I wasn't going to replace it but in retrospect, I've noticed a very slight smell of anti-freeze when I run the heater. This would indicate some very slight leakage somewhere. There was no visible evidence of such, but I figured I might as well do it while it's all apart. I'm also replacing the wiper shafts. The tapered spline that the wiper arm fits on was badly stripped on one side. Long ago, I lock-tighted the arm on. It's held just fine but this is a good time to replace those.

BTW, the dash removal wasn't the nightmare I was led to believe it would be. I had the heater assembly on the garage floor in just over an hour. Hardest part for me was getting a grip on the steering column sheer bolts with the vice-grips and even that wasn't too bad. One thing I haven't seen mentioned before was that you kinda need to split open the box that contains the heater core and blower motor while it's all still in the van. Mine musta been split open before because it had the metal clips on it, so that made it easier. The reason to split it open is because the wires for the blower feed into the housing and plug directly to the blower. You need to get at this to unplug them. I suppose you could clip them and splice 'em back together but I'm too anal to do it that way.

One last bit of advice for any of you contemplating this; remove all the carpet and padding from the front (I did Smile ) because you WILL spill at least a little bit of anti-freeze when you pull the heater hoses off.
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I still wonder why there is that clunk noise when it goes from to the highest position and the blower actually kicks on

There is a set of internal flaps that shut the fresh air off when the fan comes on, or so I am told. Its probably more prominent at full speed startup.
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cloudbaseracer
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks everyone for their imput. It does seem like something to wait until it is a must do.

I still wonder why there is that clunk noise when it goes from to the highest position and the blower actually kicks on. Is it just the noise of the "hard start" for lack of a better description?

James
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buspor63
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cloudbaseracer,
Dont worry about the heater blower, it will be warm enough in a few more weeks that defrosting is not needed. Besides, it still blows on high. You still get air flow across the heater core once you are moving to warm the toes. Wait untill the heater core starts to leak(i've never had a leaker) to fix it.

Fire on the Mountain 2.5(FMBC) is coming up soon. It's close to you I think.
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Witless Joe
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The resistor is not built into the heater blower, it is a separate piece, and lives inside the same plastic air box with the heater core and blower.

The resistor looks like a roll of quarters covered in a black plastic sheath, with (three?) 1/4" male terminals poking through along the side. It's about 4" to 5" long, IIRC.

The resistor is not included when you buy a new blower motor. ETKA is very vague on how to get a new resistor. I think it may originally have formed part of the wiring harness part # (for the blower motor), and it is unavailable separate from that wiring harness. There was a separate VW part number printed on my resistor, but I stupidly did not bother to write it down after I came up empty looking for a new one. I threw the old one back in, and I hope for the best in future.

Firebug, if you have a manual trans van, with high miles, then you might as well pull off the clutch pedal now. The clevis pin pokes through a tang on the pedal and wears right through it. There is no bearing there. The hole in the tang will doubtless be very elongated (and the clevis pin probably hourglassed, too). It gives sloppy pedal feel and eventually the pin will break through the tang. POP! - no more shiftee. Once you pull the pedal out, it's an easy fix to weld over the tang and re-drill the hole for the clevis pin (put a new pin in there while you're at it). This job requires the dash to be off, so now's the time.
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cloudbaseracer
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ric,

I did not check the fuse because it runs on the highest setting.

I hope it is just the contacts but don't think I wil be that lucky.

James
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riceye
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Had a similar problem with the 95 Cabrio. When I took apart the fan control, there was an ugly black coating on the contacts. Cleaned them up with emery cloth, lubed a little, reassembled, and the problem has not returned.

That was almost two years ago.

Regards,
Ric

BTW...Did you check the fuse?
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weinerwagen
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Never been lucky enough to have to take a Vanagon dash down, but on A-2 Jettas there is a metal resistor that mounts near the fan motor. When the resistor goes south, (further than Texas and Fort Worth) you only get
high and off.

Knowing how VW doesnt like to make odd ball stuff I would be money that
the same resistor on the Jetta/Golf is the same on the Vanagon.

It would be gun metal gray, with an electrical connection to it mounted in the air flow to help keep it cool. About 2 by 3 inch in size.
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firebug
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've still got my dash appart, and I keep hearing about other things I should change while I'm in there. So far I have : Both wiper shafts, and, a new blower motor. I'm thinking about buying a new heater core, new wiper motor, and now reading that I should replace a resistor as well... I'll have to search for a post on what all to do while your in there, I'm sure there is more.
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cloudbaseracer
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is the resistor built into the blower motor? If so, shouldn't I just replace the whole thing?

James
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Witless Joe
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a good news & bad news story.

Good news: It's almost certainly your blower's resistor, if you have "high" speed but not the lower increments. That's a tell-tale symptom. When the resistor blows,you still can run the blower at high speed, since the blower motor is still working. You just can't step it down to slower fan speeds.

Bad news: If you wanted to change it, the resistor is mounted INSIDE the plastic sarcophagus that houses the blower motor and heater core. Dash pull time. Also, so far as I could tell, the resistor is NOT available as a separate part. I suppose you could get one from a wreck. That's about the only option.

Mediocre news: Electronics geniuses could probably rig up a poteniometer to give you infinite "reduction" of fan speed. I recall posts a year or so ago on Club 80-90 (the British Vanagon site) where someone did this after their resistor failed. This would probably be easier than a dash-pull (particularly since you can't buy the resistor separately anyway).
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scottcollins72
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds to me like the switch. Volkswagens in general are notoriously bad for switches for their heaters. My girlfriend's 88 jetta's only works on 3 that's it. Eventually it turns into all 3 speeds not working but 1&2 are the first to go. It's alot cheaper and alot easier to replace.

Cheers
Scott.
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cloudbaseracer
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:49 pm    Post subject: Tell me its not the blower motor! Reply with quote

I have a 90 Westy that seems to have almost everything working well. At least I thought this till the last few days. I had noticed that recently the fan up front would only blow on the highest setting..strange. Then today I could hear a little pop sound as I initially turned the blower on to high (still no 1,2, or 3). I have read several of the posts on replacing this part and it looks like a beast of a time. Could it be that I don't need to go "under the hood" and it is something minor? If I do need to switch it out, where is the best place to buy a new one?

Thanks,

James
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