MY81 heater and actuator

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:35 pm

Hey everyone, today I decided to try and find the solution to a long running problem in the old car; the heater doesn't work. Yes it's probably not the most important thing in a car, but driving during winter is hell when you can't see out of the windscreen!

So this all started years ago when it no longer blew air through the vents.

So I started by taking the blower assembly out, removed the motor and blower fan and tried to get the motor turning while it was out...nothing. So that's the first thing, looks like the motor is worn out.

Next just out of interest I wanted to see if the actuator worked as it should, so I reconnected the vacuum hose and tried it...nothing. So is the actuator gone as well? or could it be something further into the car. And another question, a totally newb one, where do the vacuum hoses end up? I didn't want to take the whole dash apart to find out so I left it.

So if the blower motor and actuator are broken, where can I get new ones? I've looked around on spare parts sites, but most of them want about $150 for the motor alone!:shock: Or would a motor and act out of a wreckers car be good enough?

cheers

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:27 pm

A bit more info, I just took the motor apart (just removed 2 nuts) and it is FULL of carbon dust, so I'm thinking I could replace the brushes and see what happens since they look a bit short. Everything else in there looks about right, nothing broken.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:16 am

G'day Silverbullet!

The actuator on the dash for the heater does two things - it opens the flap to the heater core and also opens a coolant tap under the bonnet. The hot air lever connects to a gear lever that then connects to the tap cable. If the tap under the bonnet is jammed you won't be able to properly open the hot air flap and you won't get any hot air anyway as the heater core won't heat up...

You might need to clean or replace the tap, and check all the cables are still working without an issue.

As for the vacuum lines, there will be a line from the intake manifold that passes through the fire wall. Make sure this is still connected, not cracked and not blocked. You should be able to pull the heater/cooling control panel off the dash with a bit of work, this might lead you to the vacuum line that heads off to the intake manifold.

As for the replacement of the bushes I dunno how you'd go about sourcing new ones. I've never heard of issues with the airduct fan not working due to being worn out. They must have flogged that thing every moment of it life to wear it out...

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:30 pm

Ah ok then many thanks for the info, I'll have a look behind the control panel this week. And it turns out I was wrong about the motor, it works fine but there is no power coming through the power cable if you try to turn it on, guess I should have checked that first haha

So it seems more like an issue with the switch or something else which I'll check this week as well as the vacuum lines.

Cheers!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:13 pm

Try turning the fan on full and see if it works. If it does, there's something wrong with the slower settings - the resistor circuits are probably cactus. I can't remember where these are located. I'm sure someone will know.

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:33 pm

curious if your beast has or had AC, if so may be some after factory wiring that needs fixing up to get power to your fan motor. You could temp fit up power plug to fan from cig lighter socket. And by tinkering you have saved $150 already

Feel I need to add to (or correct ) Bennies' contribution

I'd check fuses first. On MY's that vacuum thing is only for fresh or recycle choice. The back of the buttons has a valve thing on a see saw action.

The Cold to Hot rotary adjuster runs cable to heater tap and the screen, face or feet lever is cable only operation. The indash thing separate to the heater circuit in Brumbys and wagons anyway is also all cable function.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:01 pm

steptoe, nah this car has never had AC...kinda glad now as it would be a bit more to worry about haha

I had a look behind the control panel to see what's up, and on the see-saw action where two vacuum tubes go in, they were both disconnected. Also, all the cables were still there, sliding the screen, face, feet lever made alot of noises under the dash like it was moving things around. As for the temperature wheel, I'm not sure if it was doing anything but the cable was still there and moving.

I reconnected the vacuum hoses, once it was back together there was no difference

I'll check the fuses and look under the bonnet at the vacuum hoses today or tomorrow to see if anything is wrong.

Cheers!
sam

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:09 pm

Unbelievable...it's taken me nearly a week, I had the blower motor out, I had the control panel apart trying to find the problem, when all it was, was a 25A fuse!

:evil:

lol I guess I should have RTFM first on fuses, it says the fuse should be the first thing to check if something goes wrong

After turning on the blower from about 5 years of non-operation, the motherload of debris and dust came flying out at me at full speed

I also had a look under the bonnet, found a loose rubber hose coming from the intake manifold, and a little metal tube coming through the firewall with nothing attached, put the two together and now the actuator works as well

well then, I guess that makes this thread redundant now. Thanks for all the help anyway guys, and steptoe for reminding me of the fuses. I feel now I may have wasted your time

But anyway, lessons learned, skills aquired and all that

cheers!
sam

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 11:46 pm

You not wasted anyones time, I sometimes just use this arena for thinking out loud and sometimes someone else little voice inside your head says "check fuse"

Was thinking about the brushes in fan motor after you were asking. Tonight is garbage night so the old L fan motor was to be binned but I dismantled very quickly and found that Fuj did not use stainless steel springs behind the brushes in these motors and one had almost disintegrated from corrosion due to the cooling tubes water intake over the years. It was FULL of crud in there, just banged it about, picked out skeletal remains of a spring, found something similar, lubed up with sheep and gumtree smelling lube Lanotec , reassembled and now I have a labeled working spare in the shed. The environment saved a little bit more

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 1:09 pm

steptoe wrote:Feel I need to add to (or correct ) Bennies' contribution

I'd check fuses first. On MY's that vacuum thing is only for fresh or recycle choice. The back of the buttons has a valve thing on a see saw action.

The Cold to Hot rotary adjuster runs cable to heater tap and the screen, face or feet lever is cable only operation. The indash thing separate to the heater circuit in Brumbys and wagons anyway is also all cable function.

Ah yes, I did overlook that. Its been a while since I've been behind an MY dash!

Good stuff Steptoe. It always pays to pull it apart before dumping it! I've had to resist pulling stuff apart in the office up here. Not having a shed or easy access to the subi is kinda killing me!

Glad you got it sorted Silverbullet!

Cheers

Bennie