'Tis a good write-up indeed! (I believe its part of our Tech Folder these days too.

I recently had to change my resistor bridge which uses almost the same steps as blower motor replacement. Sadly the pig tail connector had welded itself to the bridge's terminals so it too had to be changed. So far I've not had to replace a blower motor but nice to know this write up exists, for me and others as well.

 

Thank you for this post it is exactly what i need to do this job my self.one of the best howto Ive seen.
thanks
vestvan

 

exactly what I was looking for,
thanks for taking the time to detail this!

 

I was replacing my blower motor last night while on a job location, thought it would be a snap. Unfortunately I did not have all my tools with me. That lower bolt on the AC canister is in a tough spot. Could not get enough force on it to break it free. Did not have a knuckle adapter so I was trying to get it with an extension from the washer bottle location. Still could not get that dam bolt free. Considered removing the reservoir but those bolts were in a real bad spot. Hopefully I'll try again today with the knuckle adapter. What did you use for that lower bolt?

 

Signed up to this site just to thank you. There are several videos out there for trucks, none I could find for my E250! Thank you thank you.
It didn't solve my issue but made the whole experience easy having your posts and pix as a reference.
Heads up, I did buy the motor and replacement squirrel cage at auto zone and the new squirrel cage sits too far forward and seated itself against the housing inside the hole once installed. I had to take it all apart and swap the cage to the old one. So anyone doing this in the future be wary of a new cage from autozone.
2003 5.4 E250 work van

 

You're welcome. Glad it was helpful.

 

Thanks for the excellent post. It was very helpful.

I suspected that my blower had gone bad. Here's the electrical schematic that might help if you need to troubleshoot. Notice the blower motor resistor in the drawing.



The blower motor is located in the engine compartment behind the battery. On the left side when facing the front of the van.


Here's the view behind the battery. The blower motor is on the left. On the right you can see the plastic electrical connection into the blower motor resistor.


Need to remove the battery. Disconnect the cables then look at the back of the battery.
There is a bolt to the battery hold down. 5/16" bolt head.


How it looks removed.


Lift out the battery.

You can get a better view of the blower motor and resistor.


Next remove the battery tray. 1/2" bolt heads.




The view without the battery tray. Now I know where the windshield washer fluid reservoir is located.


The blower motor is attached to the blower assembly. Unplug the electrical connection to the blower motor


There is a rubber hose called the blower motor housing tube. Disconnect the tube from the blower assembly.


It's not required that you remove the blower motor resistor to replace the blower motor but I wanted to check mine. Here's the reason why. You can see debris among the resistance coils that has come off the trees and gotten into the vent system. I was getting some smoke within the cab while running the fan. This is the reason why. The coils where getting hot enough to cause this to smoke.


The blower motor resistor looks corroded enough that it probably needs replacing.


I'm not going to replace it at this time because I plan to make an upgrade to the blower system later in my RV build.

To the left of the blower motor is the A/C system suction accumulator/drier. This cylinder has to be moved a bit before the blower motor can be removed.


There are three bolts that hold the cylinder in place. They are all on the left side and are 5/16" head.




There are four screws that hold the motor blower in place. 5/16" head. Remove the screws and pop the blower motor from the blower assembly. Move the suction accumulator/drier a couple inches towards the front of the engine compartment and the blower motor with the attached wheel will just fit through.


Here's all the pieces.


Once I got the blower motor out I found that it wouldn't spin. "Well there's your problem!"

Went to the local Advance Auto and bought a replacement blower motor. $36.99. Part #35266 Limited Lifetime Replacement. And when the guy behind the counter asks "What kind of motor?" he doesn't mean 'blower".


I'm going to reuse the blower motor wheel. It's held in place by this one retaining clip.


I went to the Mcmaster-Carr web page for a more official sounding name for this type of a clip. They call it a "Self-Locking External Retaining Ring".

There is something about the previous photograph that I just can't put my finger on.

The retaining clip came off without much trouble. Just grabbed it with pliers and it pulled right off.
Notice the flat spot on motor shaft.


To remove the wheel from the shaft I placed my hands on each side and gently worked it back and forth till it came free.




Remove the blower motor housing tube from the old blower motor.


I Cleaned it up and treat it with Armor All before reusing.


continued ...[/QUOTE]

 

I never noticed this thread since I don't go too far back in the threads usually. But if it were me I'd change that resistor pack out for a PWM and change the dial on the dash to a potentiometer for more variable control in fan speed. That's what I'll do to mine once I get mine further in its build.

 

Actually that's exactly what I did do. You can read about it here.

 

Cool, didn't know that you did that. How is it performing? Do you like it?

 

Works great. Haven't ever had any problems with it.

 

Disregard that post, I reread that section of the post. I guess that I forgot about it considering how long that post is now. Have you considered changing the vacuum controls to servos? I'm considering doing that when I get to that point of the build on mine.

 

Haven't seen any need to. The vacuum ones work fine.

 

Thanks to your post, I don't have to drive in the dead of Ohio winter without heat and defrost. You inspired me to change my blower motor out. I took out the blower, tested the motor, went to get a new one and had it re-installed in less than 3 hours, and I almost never work on vehicles. I have a '97 Club Wagon w/ 226K miles.
Great Post!

 

You're welcome. Might be cold in Ohio but you're going to just miss SNOWZILLA which is bearing down upon me here in WV as we type.