Hello gents!
This damage happened in April 2018. That circle frame of the wheel broke off in pieces. I was able to get all pieces out that went into the evaporator. Some remained in the blower assembly, so I had to open it up to remove them. It is the left side blower. The wheel blades are held on by the other side of the wheel frame and the damaged ends are just floating in the air but they still work.
Am I the only one with this problem or it happened to others?
Never had that happen in quite a few years of ‘40 ownership (2.9 and 4.0)
This is actually not all that uncommon. When we rebuild these, we replace the fan with a aluminum one and a new sealed motor. Note that the motor commutator and brushes are in the air stream. If the air were filtered, that would help but they do get dusty and dirty which causes wear. Coming up with a used squirrel cage fan one like you have should not be a problem but then with the effort to replace it, do you want it to happen again? Also take note that they are left and right as far as which way the fans tilt.
Robin, Dick,
thanks guys for the reply. It still works and I won’t touch it until the blades start to break off then I gotta replace it. Also, does anyone know a stronger motor that fits for increased airflow? It’s not too bad if I use the a/c but sometimes I want better airflow when I use just the fans without turning on the a/c. Thanks!
Are you sure that both fans are turning? One can fail and then the airflow is greatly diminished.
I just checked both blowers and they work. Years ago I replaced the relays in them plus installed new brushes too. The old ones in the right motor were worn out to the point that there was no contact and the motor stopped working. So I replaced the brushes in both of them. I also resoldered all joints in the L and R fuse boxes. A cracked joint in the B4 fuse prevented the left motor to run so I did both fuse boxes. But I still haven’t replaced the micro switch in the a/c control panel so sometimes I have to go between the low med high settings to get the fans running. But I’ll do that too some time.
Thank you for your advice.
try a squirt of contact cleaner in there Joe while switching them back and forth quickly a few times …it might help!
Thanks Larry, I’ll try it.
I got confused by this a while back. I removed several blower motors, and couldn’t understand why those mounted in the left side of the car were stamped “R” and the right-mounted ones had “L”.
I finally realized R and L was the direction of air flow out of the box, always towards the center matrix. That was a head scratcher for a bit.
Rob
Left and Right are one way on the XJ40 blowers. They are opposite on the metal XJS & XJ6/1-2-3 blowers. So left and right don’t always mean which side of the car they are mounted on. BTW: the sealed motors and metal fans we use blow about 20% more air at full blast. We actually measured this with a air velocity measuring device. Unfortunately, the metal fans have a different size shaft hole than the original motors. All must be replaced as a unit if upgrading.
Hi Dick. You must be with Black Dog, thats where I got my new blower units a number of years ago and they do have at least 20% more air coming out.
No, with Coventry West. Black dog is Motorcars in Texas. Similar product and process though.
This is the current condition of the blower cage. I removed the whole left blower assembly so the hunting for a new cage and (improved) motor has begun.
Does anyone know the RPM of the OEM motor? I think I found a good replacement with 4000 RPM at 12V and will fit in the blower housing plus the shaft is 8mm O.D. and a metal cage with 5/16" shaft size.
Ooh thats a mess :(…
Robin, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed. The wheel was so out of balance before I removed it that I just didn’t turn the a/c on. It wasn’t shaky but very loud. I start to think my car’s a/c system has a built in “let’s screw Joseph over just before the summer starts” electronics. I stopped counting how many times the a/c had some kind of problem just before the hottest months.
I’ll keep the forum updated about the repair.
I replaced the blower motor and the wheel. No problem with the motor fitment inside of the blower housing but I did some trimming for the wheel since it’s wider than the original. The O.D. is smaller though at 5 1/4". The motor cost me $42 with shipping (ebay), the wheel was $9.95 at Autozone.
That’s where I did the trimming. This is the left side blower. Motor shaft diameter is 8mm, wheel shaft hole is 5/16". I had to file the shaft to make the wheel fit so care has to be taken for this job. Too much filing and the wheel will be out of balance. There’s a securing allen bolt for the wheel.
Joe just curious - why did you reduce (file down) the diameter of the motor shaft rather than enlarge (drill out) the diameter of the hole in the wheel hub? The hole was only undersized by 0.0025 inches in diameter.
Mike, I did the filing for two reasons. I don’t have an 8mm drill bit and it was easier to make finer size adjustments with the file. Plus if I drilled the shaft hole I should’ve had to hold the wheel tight somehow to prevent from spinning. But I filed down the shaft a little bit too much. The wheel slipped on it without any pushing. I can hear the unbalance slightly but no vibration gets transferred to the dash. I still have the balancing weights from the original wheel, I’ll play with them later. I have to remove the blower again when I get the crimp connectors. Right now I just twisted the wires and put some electric tape on them.