They said it couldn't be done, so naturally I wanted to do it that way. On my 79 with factory air I changed the blower motor without messing with evaporator, heater core, etc. I don't know if it was really much quicker, but I could do one again in maybe an hour, hour and a half. And if it goes out again I'll be able to swap it in 30 minutes or so.

In a nutshell, I ground the rivets on the case under the hood, then surgically removed the motor, replaced, and sealed the case back with nuts and bolts. I took some pictures so I can give a more detailed write up, if anyone is interested.

The guide from NCS was helpful with the pics, and a guy here who had cut his case open also, I have to find his name.

NCS did say that if you remove the rivets you'll ruin your unit, but I'm not sure why, it seems to work fine.

 

Sounds like a sticky to me !!!! :-)

 

I haven't had any problems with mine either. I set mine up to be removed from the engine bay also.

 

interested in the write up...

 

and the Pics too.

 

i was thinking of a write up with pics....that's usually how it works.lol....we should have a write up section on the forum or lots more sticky's on this sub-forum.....like the 3G upgrade and trans and engine swaps...

 

Buck, you are the one I mentioned in my post. I couldn't remember your name and I was on a different computer. The pics in this post: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...r-removal.html were helpful and what gave me the initiative to actually try it. Thanks.

I took some pics, I'll post them later tonight.

 

Glad those pics helped and you got the job done.

 

Ok, start with removing the rivets from the cover under the hood. I used an air cutoff tool and a dremel for the tight ones. I didn't take a pic of the cover before, but you can just look at yours. The holes where the rivets were are marked in red in the 1st pic.

The cover does have a gasket around it so be careful with that. Mine was in good shape and I left it on.

Now use an 1/8" allen wrench to remove the squirrel cage. You'll need a long one because the set screw is on the inside. It will be where the flat part on the motor shaft is.

Note that the fan is screwed in from the inside, with the screws marked in blue.

 

There may be an easier way to get the screws for the fan housing out, but I ended cutting the 3 tabs that hold the motor to the housing, marked in red. Actually, I cut two, then bent it back and forth 1257 times until the 3rd broke.

The tabs are marked in red. Please note that this is actually the new motor because I didn't take a pic of the old one with the squirrel cage off.

 

With the motor out of the way you can reach in and remove the 4 screws. Mine were 5/16", and I used a ratcheting "dog bone" with a 5/16" nut driver bit in the 1/4" end.

Again, there may be a better way, but I cut the remainder of the motor housing (which is now just a ring) in a couple of spots so I could bend it and break it and pull it through the hole. If you just cut in a 1/4" or so where the lip is bent on the inside of the ring it will bend much easier. Part of the door cover is over the ring, so be careful not to break it.

You should now look like the next pic. Note that you will need to flip the clips over which are marked in red.

 

I forgot to mention that I cut the wires on the motor, but you probably figured that out if you made it this far. Cut as close to the motor as you can, because you can't pull them out easily doing it this way so you only have what's there to work with.

I got the cheaper motor from autozone which had a black and an orange wire, and they actually corresponded to the wires on the truck. Check to make sure your's spins the same way.

Hook up the wires and then screw the motor down. Mine came with crimp connectors on it, so I used them and kind of wrapped the extra wire around the motor.

You should now look like this:

 

Now just put the squirrel cage on the shaft, tighten the set screw, and then put the cover for the whole housing back on and secure with nuts and bolts. I don't have a pic of mine, but Bucks77ford's looks like this:




During this process I found the NCS write-up quite helpful, so I could see what I was trying to undo from the other side. It can be found here:
NORTH COUNTRY SPECIALTIES ®

That's it! I wasted a lot of time figuring out how to get stuff loose, but am sure I could do the next one much faster. I've never done it the other way, but after reading about it I think this way would at least be less frustrating even if it takes just as long. And if I ever have to do it again it will be a snap.

 

Very cool! What engine does your truck have in it?

 

Nice, both yours and Bucks threads are very informative and I will be consulting both soon. BTW, how difficult is it to access the blower from inside the cab? PITA?