[jd0n88]

Does anyone rebuild their blower motors or just replace them? The motor in my 76 Grand Prix has been making noises lately. The ones they have at Rockauto don't look the same and I'm leery about new chinese made parts. I like to rebuild original equipment when possible. Any ideas?

[tempest1964]

Maybe post this in 'heating and cooling'? Just a suggestion.

[steve25]

I don’t want to say never, but in my 50 plus years of doing this car stuff and reading nearly every mag printed about it I can say that I have ever seen a ad by someone that has a can rebuild blower motors!

[Skip Fix]

Maybe rewinding it with more loops to go faster like the slot car racers in the 60s-70s did!

[Formulas]

I have not bought one in a while but when I did it was hecho in mexico

[64-3Deuces]

Originally Posted by jd0n88

Does anyone rebuild their blower motors or just replace them? The motor in my 76 Grand Prix has been making noises lately. The ones they have at Rockauto don't look the same and I'm leery about new chinese made parts. I like to rebuild original equipment when possible. Any ideas?

Not sure what the 76 GP blower motor looks like but you might try the folks at Corvette Restoration. Those blower motors are generally pretty much the same though maybe with some differences in appearance. In addition to Vettes and Camaros the service also lists 64-77 most GM passenger cars.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26468791123...oAAOSwHLNZXVUd

[Schurkey]

Yeah, I've pulled a few apart. It's been decades. They're supposedly non-serviceable. I only dicked with the "A/C" motors, because non-A/C motors were smaller and weaker. They weren't worth messing with--get an A/C motor for that vehicle which upgrades the heater. Back in the "good old days" there were only about five part numbers: the "round" housing for A/C and non-A/C, the "triangle" housing for A/C and non-A/C, and some vans used a reverse-rotation motor and squirrel-cage.

Some are riveted together, I'd drill the rivets, then re-rivet. Others are held together with bent-over metal tabs. If they break...you're kinda screwed, so it's back to drilling and riveting.

No doubt you could find suitable brushes. Generally, they weren't too worn when I was opening those motors but that was thirty years ago. Clean up any dust/dirt/debris, polish up the armature, LUBE THE BUSHINGS, and reassemble.

Of all the things needed, it's the bushings and the shaft that rides on 'em that need the most lovin'. The usual reason the motors get removed is that they're noisy; and that's all on the bushings.

If the bushings and/or the shaft are just plain un-usable due to excess wear...buy a new motor or grab another used one and see if the guts are in better condition.

[jd0n88]

Yeah this one is an a/c motor and has the bent over tabs, looks like straightening them will allow the two halves of the case to separate. The motor works fine, it just squeals when the outside temperature gets cold. I thought taking apart and clean/lube might stop it from squealing this fall/winter.

[Formulas]

Also I had a noisy fan one time and I changed it out the new one made noise also turned out the squirrel cage was hitting a blob of seam seal or case seal on the firewall

[mgarblik]

When I worked at the Nissan dealer, they had a terrible time with squealing blower motors. A service bulletin had us put grease on a 1/8" drill bit and carefully drill through the sheet metal cover over the rear bushing. Then put 2-3 drops of oil in the hole. Then hook it to a 12 V battery with jumpers and run for several seconds. Repeat 3-4 times. When I say repeat, I mean applying the power, not adding more and more oil. If it got quiet, seal the hole with a tiny blob of epoxy putty. If it continued to make noise, new blower motor. The oil worked about 75% of the time. Might be worth a shot.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by jd0n88

Yeah this one is an a/c motor and has the bent over tabs, looks like straightening them will allow the two halves of the case to separate. The motor works fine, it just squeals when the outside temperature gets cold. I thought taking apart and clean/lube might stop it from squealing this fall/winter.

Cleaning and lubricating the bushings in those kinds of motors will often help in the short term, but once they've started to make noise it's usually going to be a losing proposition in the long term.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Stuart

Cleaning and lubricating the bushings in those kinds of motors will often help in the short term, but once they've started to make noise it's usually going to be a losing proposition in the long term.

I would NOT argue that point. Nissan was fighting a big problem with them while I worked at the dealer. Especially in the salt belt. The air intake for the blower would suck in some salt water from the salt covered roads which made a dry film that made the motors squeal. I remember the parts department turning in a plastic tub of them in for warranty that must have had 50-60 motors in it. That was just the failures from the service bulletin! And this was a mid-size dealer. They probably sold 25-30 cars a month.

[hgerhardt]

Yeah, those bearings are Oilite sintered bronze with oil infused during the manufacturing process. Just re-oiling them is at best a short-term solution.

The way to really rejuvenate those bushings is to remove them from the motor and set up a vacuum chamber with the bushings submerged in hot oil while under vacuum. Once you release the vacuum, the porous sintered bronze sucks up the oil.