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Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:07 pm

New favorite trick ever. I drilled the hole, cleaned with PB blaster, and used a long rubber tube extension on a grease gun, and managed to get quite a bit into the spinning shaft. A week long road trip with no hassles, on a blower motor that hasn't worked since I got it. Now I have time to hassle with my clutch instead. Thanks for the tip Karl!

Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:19 am

I tried this today- Does the hole need to be drilled through the front cowl and the box? If so about how far is it to the Box? Is the hole drilled horizontal to the ground?

Original Post
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3...p;start=20

Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:06 pm

Once you drill through the sheet metal you look up and see the bearing. I drilled 2 holes one for the lube tube and one to shine a light in to see what you are doing. I got some plastic plugs for the holes from a undercoating place.

Easy to do when you look in the right place. A bit up and a bit of light helps

Bob

Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:51 pm

I forgot about that thread, TK classics in there.

Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:32 pm

I just did this - and I did made two holes. The bearing is a lot higher up than I expected but, dammit, this method really works! I was unable to run my front heater and now it is quiet as a mouse.

I used some kind of silicone spray made by Liquid Wrench. It comes out as a sort of thick, clingy foam that really stays put but its under enough pressure to get it all they way up to the bearing.

Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:35 pm

where is TK? 8) i'm waiting............

Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:01 am

whynotvw wrote: where is TK? 8) i'm waiting............

He can hear you over the squeal of his blower motor. :wink:

Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:50 am

deprivation wrote: ... The bearing is a lot higher up than I expected but, dammit, this method really works! ....

any measurements with a ruler?

A cheap, temporary "fix" is not a real fix, but it's better than nothing.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:59 am

randywebb wrote: A cheap, temporary "fix" is not a real fix, but it's better than nothing.

Adding lubrication to the exposed bearing is the best maintenance one can do to extend the life of the blower motor. IMO, routine maintenance is a good thing that is not to be discouraged. I'm a big fan of the "temporary fix" of routine engine oil changes, etc... The idea that replacing the part is the "real fix" when lubricating it will cause it to operate properly for an long period of time is silly. I had a jetta (same style of blower) whose motor had actually seized because of the exposed bushing and would blow the fuse whenever it was turned on. I freed up and lubricated the bushing and it was still working fine without any further attention more than 5 years later when I sold the vehicle to my brother-in-law. It was still working fine when HE sold the car three years later than that. 8+ years of added service. If that doesn't fit into your definition of a "real fix" then you might want to rethink it.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:13 am

Andrew A. Libby wrote: randywebb wrote: A cheap, temporary "fix" is not a real fix, but it's better than nothing.

Adding lubrication to the exposed bearing is the best maintenance one can do to extend the life of the blower motor.

The only negative I see to doing it this way is that you are going to build up dust all over the motor from the oil spray. Small price to pay IMHO.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:33 am

Reading Deprivation's comments about the silicone he used - - "It comes out as a sort of thick, clingy foam that really stays put but its under enough pressure to get it all they way up to the bearing" - - reminded me of the motorcycle chain lube we all used to use in go-karting. I have some, and when my fan squeals, I'm going to use it to do a "temporary fix" too. It comes in a spray can and goes on thick and gooey and has got me out of many a jam before where WD40 was not enough.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:07 pm

My fan starting squeaking a just little on the lowest speed a couple of years ago. At first I didn’t think much of it. I would just turn it to the second position and go on my merry way. Well, over time it got continuously louder and louder and started making horrible grinding noises on all the different speeds. I was resigned to the fact that a complete disassembly of the dash and replacement of the fan was inevitable sometime in the very near future.

Then I saw the previous thread! What the heck, nothing to loose. So I gave it a try. Followed the directions and drilled a hole in the exact same location as the photos. However, I couldn’t see anything in there that remotely looked like the end bearing on the fan. What the heck?? So, I got the next bigger size drill bit out of the tool box and made the hole bigger. There was sttill nothing but black and empty darkness back there. Then got one of those LED book lights with the flexible neck and was able to snake the light over the top of the bulkhead. I could see everything clear as day. The bearing is up at about a 45* angle and about 5 to 6 inches behind the bulkhead.

I didn’t want to just blast the lubricant up all over the place and hope that some of it got in to the bearing, so I took a thin bamboo shish-kabob skewer from the kitchen and used it like a wand and attached it to one end of some thin clear plastic tubing I got from the hardware store. I used a foot of the tubing. The other end of the plastic tubing slipped nicely over the little red straw from the Penephite lube can. With the hose on the end of my “wand” I was able to direct the spray right at the end of the bearing. Nice and clean. I used Penephite because it is what I had on hand and it seems to be working great. It is also made by the same folks that make Aerokroil (http://www.kanolabs.com/) - another amazing product. I had the fan running while I spray the lubricant and it immediately stopped squealing! The fan motor has been so quite that I forgot all about it until this morning when I saw this thread.

Little tips and tricks like this are what make the Samba such a great resource. I am a pretty resourcefull guy, but there is no way I would have thought of this on my own!

Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:25 pm

I still think we should be calling this:

"The kAy-hole"

Thanks for the pointer Karl, this worked really well for me.

cheers

Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:25 pm

Does the hole need to be drilled through the front cowl and the box? i drilled the hole through the cowl but i couldn't locate the bearing. I looked and looked but i can't seem to locate the bearing. any pictures anyone? need help. thanks

Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:06 pm

ok 4-5" and thanks for your other info

as for 8+ years, that's great - but for someone else it might have worked for 8+ minutes
- that's the problem with anecdotes, you never know how representative they are.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:24 pm

whynotvw wrote: Does the hole need to be drilled through the front cowl and the box?
No. Just the cowl, just the way it's shown in the photo.

whynotvw wrote: I looked and looked but i can't seem to locate the bearing. any pictures anyone? need help. thanks

It's too teeny a space to take a picture, I'm sorry to say. I drilled two holes - one of them was about half and inch or more in diameter so I could shine a bright flashlight into the space. You'll have to get down kinda low and look up about 45 degrees or more and a little to the left. I ran the fan so I could see the end of the fan turning. I looked and looked and finally caught a glimpse of something spinning. Once I had that fixed in my mind I unloaded a crapload of that Liquid Wrench stuff until the fan got quiet. For me it was kind hit or miss but since my fan was all but seized up, I figured I had nothin' to lose.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:56 pm

deprivation wrote:
It's too teeny a space to take a picture, I'm sorry to say. I drilled two holes - one of them was about half and inch or more in diameter so I could shine a bright flashlight into the space. You'll have to get down kinda low and look up about 45 degrees or more and a little to the left. I ran the fan so I could see the end of the fan turning. I looked and looked and finally caught a glimpse of something spinning. Once I had that fixed in my mind I unloaded a crapload of that Liquid Wrench stuff until the fan got quiet. For me it was kind hit or miss but since my fan was all but seized up, I figured I had nothin' to lose.

Deprviation: thank you. I feel stomped on this one. Do you think you can draw arrow to approx. area on the picture, I would really appreciate that. I tried twice and on both occasion I gave up looking. I even called Karl but that didn't help either. I think if you can jus draw little arrow on top of the picture that would help greatly. thanks again. :?:

Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:39 pm

This is probably not accurate but it's how I remember it. You might need to get a bright LED on some wire and lower it down into your defogger vent or lead it in through the second hole in the cowling.

I think the originator of this method had a much, much better understanding of the geography, so drilling one hole was okay. I needed a little more help.

Good luck.

Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:44 pm

Thank you deprivation. karl made it seem like it was so easy. I'm sure it is but I just could not find it.

Two days before I installed the pop top canvas all by myself and I was feeling all confident working on my van, and i was thinking I can handle anything. then this happend I got humbled. :oops:

thanks again deprivation.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:21 am

I haven't posted in a while, but have been seriously lurking.

This was great, I was only waiting for someone to show where to drill the hole. I figured that bearing had to be up there somewhere.

My Carat fan had stopped and the Syncro was squeaking. I got them both running smooth again last night.

Kept looking at the Carat, contemplating taking the dash out, easy to put that job off till warmer weather...

Thanks again Sambanistas