Ok, I finally finished up this job and oh man, does this part SUCK. However, I think I've found a solution that makes at least this step in particular, much easier. The solution? Endoscope. I had a cheapo $35 Amazon special laying around but, if you don't have one, buy one, rent one, steal one seriously if you value your life get one. The main issue here is you're either contorted or hunched over working in the dash of the van trying to "thread the needle" by stabbing the blower motor shaft into a blind hole on the cage wheel that falls freely as the wheel is not attached to the van in any other way. You can't really access the wheel in any meaningful way from either end to prop it up or manipulate it either while you're doing this, either.Originally Posted by timsrv
Prior to this step, reassemble as this thread and logic would dictate, and once you get to this part you'll probably feel the urge to try and do it blind by feel for a few minutes. Give it a try and see how it goes. Once you're done with that, snake your endoscope between the black frame of the motor and the housing box and jiggle the scope around until the camera is pointing towards the end of the shaft. Now, you'll be able to clearly see what you're doing and you'll be able to at least get the tip of the shaft (giggity) resting in the hole. The clearance between the wheel and the frame of the motor is too tight to fully reassemble with the scope still in there but you just did the hard part, so carefully remove the scope, and carefully rotate the motor while gently applying forward pressure, and the notch on the shaft will line up with the wheel and it'll fully seat. From there, simply proceed to bust up your forearm tightening down the wheel from your chosen access point on the exterior of the van (I chose the cornering lens because I subconsciously hate my body) and you're "home free."
If you do it this way, this part is merely a mild annoyance and you may wonder why Tim says this is the worst part of an already dreadful job. We're all friends here so I'll admit I spent probably 4 *@#!*$ hours on just this part before I chucked the endoscope down there. Now I was hanging out in the garage with music and whiskey so it's not like it was 4 hours book-time but you get it. Also, this job really tears up your forearms so you need to take some time between reps to clean up the blood and let the indentations on your forearms go away. With the scope, I think it took 15, 20 seconds to line up the shaft with the hole, with another 20 to 30 seconds to fully seat the shaft to the wheel. After that, reassembly is reverse of disassembly.
A couple of other quick notes:
- I left my dash installed, and did not feel like I could get anywhere enough "give" by unbolting all the accessible crash bar bolts to remove the unit as one piece (motor and wheel) without cracking my dash assembly. Removing the bolts was still useful as it gives you enough wiggle room to finagle the motor out and back in but it's not the shortcut I was hoping it'd be.
- Come to terms with damaging your expensive and hard to replace cornering lens doing this job. I'm in the Southwest so prolonged dry heat and UV damage really do a number on plastics out here but all these vans are at least 35 years old at this point so it's rough for everyone now. I got "lucky" and merely cracked the housing where the post meets the body. Some JB weld and you'd never know what happened.
The van is all back together and I have a working blower motor for the first time in 5 years so it was a success but overall I'd rate it a 3/10 job I'd rather replace a clutch any day of the week before I tried this again.
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