[VT-VX] HOW TO: Repair your blower motor

[Tasmaniak]

This is for people who have verified all their fuses and relays and can confirm that the blower motor must've failed

This is not for people who have fans that only work on HIGH... thats another fault. Thats your fan speed resistor pack.

First off, lets confirm the blower has failed. Grab your multimeter, unplug the the 2pin connector (Must be disconnected to test) and check for the reading. Ideally, you need to see below .5Ohms for a satisfactory fan
As you can see in this image, I have 12.5Kohms.. or 12,500 ohms. That resistance is WAY too high and means that something that should be connected is only just making contact.

You need to remove the blower motor... start here https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/vt-blower-fan.1005

Once you have the motor out, you will see two 7mm bolts. Remove them and set them aside.

Remove the lid and the bolts

Now remove the board that sits above the magnets and windings. Be careful as you lift it up as the brushes will shoot forward once removed from the commutator and you may lose the two springs. Flip it over and inspect the brushes and the copper braid from the brushes. As you lift it up, also the tension of the brushes against the commutator and make sure they had a solid pressure.

You can see on mine, the brushes are short but long enough to suffice.

All this crap you see in here is the crap that has come off the brushes over the years as they have worn down. Clean it out with compressed air. I'd suggest using a mask and eyewear as it is metal dust.

Now it wouldn't to verify the continuity between each brush and it corresponding pin in the plug. It should be a dead short (.3ohm or less is satisfactory)

In my instance, one was reading very high resistance. This is NOT ok and will stop the fan from working.
Looking at the side, I found a set of points inbetween the plug and one of the brushes. The points are very similar to the points in a distributor. I seperated them carefully and had a look and sure enough, they were covered in carbon. A quick rub through with a nail file very quickly sorted it out.

Now while it's all apart, clean it up and get the rest of the crap out of it. Clean the commutator with alcohol and a fibreglass pen and the same to contact point of the brushes.

Reassemble the motor and verify the resistance between the two pins in the plug now... .3Ohm... awesome

Test it out back in the car on the low speed (Otherwise it could fly out of your hand with torque and smash the blades

Done! Now save your money for other things... like beer!

 

[superg65]

It's also worth having a close look at the brush springs - one of mine was damaged (looked like heat from friction of the brushes) and no longer had enough springiness to keep the brush against the commutator. Replaced it from my spring collection (cos everyone has a spring collection, don't they?). The replacement spring doesn't have to be a perfect match in diameter but springy enough to push the brush without over-doing it.
I also cleaned my the contactor points with a piece of 1200 grit sand-paper - be careful using a nail file as you don't want to bend the spring steel that holds it shut or scratch it too much so future dust has a better place to hide.
In case you are tempted, you don't have to remove the impellor and the shaft with the windings - just hold the motor upside down and tap it gently on the bench to free up any other dust/debris.
If you aren't confident at doing this -get yr trusty digital camera and take heaps of photos as you go - it's really a pretty simple repair.

 

[wod300]

Hey Taz, I apologise for the thread dig, but I was wondering if you would still have these photos? A lot of them are not appearing in the thread and I'm currently trying to save my blower as a new one is around $200 according to ebay. I don't know about a used unit. Any help would be really appreciated, thanks.

 

[Matt02SS]

Thank you sir! saved me $200 for a new blower motor.

 

[heebiegeebies]

my vx fan failed completely last week after I rear ended some silly bird, low impact. Fan flickered, but kept running all speeds. Next morning I have no fan at all. Does this sound more like the motor itself ?? or the resistor itself thing is shot?? can I test resistor with a test light ??
any help much appreciated.38c tomorrow and I got no air at all .ahhh.. any ideas

 

[james1297]

Sorry for bumping such an old post but I gotta says cheers for this.
Hell of a time for the AC fan to fail in this summer heat.
The contact points just needed a clean up. Saved me a lot of money, thanks.
James s2 VX SS

 

[vxslider88]

Great thread. My blower stopped working on a 42 degree day recently. Checked fuses, relays, resistor and finally pulled the blower motor which turned out to be full of carbon. Big help, cheers.

 

[Les Prichard]

Thanks just pulled mine apart and found springs jammed just cleaned and replaced works a treat

 

[VFCalais2017]

Thanks Tasmaniak!

I just did this to my Calais after the fan failed in 40 degree heat!!! The motor was full of dust and debris but the brushes and armature were perfect. Tested the resistance on the coils and everything was spot on. Reassembled and tested and away she went Saved myself $300 on a new fan. Now off to Dan Murphy's...

 

[Fu Manchu]

I found the fan motor on a Ford Territory, VZ, VE and VF are the same.
The plastic housing has some differences, but the motors are same manufacturer (air international) and
I tried to disassemble the motor (wrecker one) but couldn’t get it back together once it was all apart from the outer housing.

How do I get it back into the metal housing? What the trick?