Remove squirrel cage fan from heater blower motor?

[totothelandrover]

Howdy folks - first post!

I'm currently replacing the heater blower motor in my RHD 110 with a VDO replacement I picked up from AutoZone.

The new motor itself fits nicely in the heater box, but I need to swap the actual fan blade assembly off of the old bad motor and onto the new one, so it will blow the air in the correct direction (after I switch up the wiring).

But, I cannot get that sucker to come off the shaft of the old motor. Being nearly 30-year old plastic, I'm trying really hard to be gentle with it. I removed the circlip from the end of the shaft, and it looks like it should just slide right off, but it's really jammed on there.

Anybody tried this before? Am I missing something easy?

 

[totothelandrover]

By the way, I found the super helpful write-up for this mod on these forums - so far so good to this point!

VDO Heater Blower Motor Replacement

My heater blower motor never worked and it was time to tackle this issue. The fuse was good and when I tested if there was power I was reading 12 volts so it had to be the motor. I took off the wing top air intake and tried to move the squirrel cage with my hands. It did move but with some...

nas-row.com

 

[javelinadave]

This might work:

 

[totothelandrover]

I've got the thing soaking in penetrating fluid right now, so I'll give this a shot this afternoon. As a wise man named Axl once said, I probably just need a little patience.

 

[MountainD]

I used a thin piece of plywood— cut a slot in it so I could slip it under the cage (notch went where shaft is. I put the plywood, so supporting the cage, between two cinder blocks with the old motor dangling between blocks. I tapped the shaft a few times with a hammer gently and motor dropped out.

 

[totothelandrover]

I used a thin piece of plywood— cut a slot in it so I could slip it under the cage (notch went where shaft is. I put the plywood, so supporting the cage, between two cinder blocks with the old motor dangling between blocks. I tapped the shaft a few times with a hammer gently and motor dropped out.

Thanks! That's pretty much exactly what I ended up doing, minus the plywood - I managed to screw the housing down into my bench vise, slid a couple of thin crescent wrenches between the fan and the housing, and used a drift to hammer the shaft down through the hole, and the motor popped right out like you said. Boy, was the motor in bad shape. Still waiting on my new seals in mail, but hopefully I'll get some heat this weekend!