Replacing the Evaporator Blower Motors on the Cheap
01-17-2018, 11:28 PM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Replacing the Evaporator Blower Motors on the Cheap
It would appear that by now the majority of 964 and 993 owners know how stupidly expensive the replacement evaporator motors cost to procure. One can get a genuine fan for about $855 each from Pelican, or about $669 from Autonation (parts.com). While those also include a new shroud and fan cage, it's still a ton of coin for a small fan motor.
Looking into the aftermarket, for $164 a new Uro or Dansk motor can acquired. What savings! True though there are existing reviews that show these don't quite have the strength the original Bosch motors have (to no surprise). So what to do. A little digging shows that the right side motor (964-572-016-01) is still produced by Bosch, part number of 0-130-063-023. The left motor is NLA.
"But Chris," you say, "that still leaves the left motor to be sourced!" Correct you are.
My existing motors were roached. The right motor had a seized bearing that broke loose from the housing and the brushes had melted the plastic housing, and the left motor shaft had worn a groove into the front bearing and squealed horridly.
Looking into the aftermarket, for $164 a new Uro or Dansk motor can acquired. What savings! True though there are existing reviews that show these don't quite have the strength the original Bosch motors have (to no surprise). So what to do. A little digging shows that the right side motor (964-572-016-01) is still produced by Bosch, part number of 0-130-063-023. The left motor is NLA.
"But Chris," you say, "that still leaves the left motor to be sourced!" Correct you are.
My existing motors were roached. The right motor had a seized bearing that broke loose from the housing and the brushes had melted the plastic housing, and the left motor shaft had worn a groove into the front bearing and squealed horridly.
After I reviewed this thread, I had the ingenious idea to make a right motor fit the left. No, I did not cut into the HVAC suitcase... the motor. I used a rotary tool to cut the steel brush-end cap off of the old left motor and removed the brush housing. On a new Bosch motor, I used a punch to bend the crimps to free the brush-end cap housing. Even though the brushes looked serviceable, I replaced the brushes and thermal switch with the new motor's parts. A punch was again used to reseat the brush-end cap.
On the ferrule issue, as with the linked thread I cut it off of the old motors with the rotary tool. With the 3-jaw puller I had, there was no way to get a good grip to remove it otherwise. I epoxied each ferrule into a fan housing (Double/Bubble fast-set epoxy) instead of welding it to the motor shaft. A touch of oil on the shaft and a few swift taps had them in place. The first time I put the fan on the motor, I had not epoxied the ferrule and it slipped into contact with the brush and prevented the motor from spinning. Second time I also used neoprene washers as a temporary buffer (removed when completed). Presto!
I purchased the Bosch motors off of as I found their price to be great, and a known entity in case I had any issues with the motors or shipping. A month ago it cost just under $140 for both motors with shipping via DHL. When I looked today, the individual price jumped to £86.17 from £37.17 and £39.37 in December. Edit: now the Amazon page states they don’t deliver to USA.
I imagine that I'm not the first to modify the motors in this manner, but I didn't see it posted elsewhere. I felt that this process was preferable over cutting the suitcase as it would cost far less to fix if I screwed up.
The speed of the new motors... fantastic. And best of all? They're plug & play and I saved a ton of cash!
On the ferrule issue, as with the linked thread I cut it off of the old motors with the rotary tool. With the 3-jaw puller I had, there was no way to get a good grip to remove it otherwise. I epoxied each ferrule into a fan housing (Double/Bubble fast-set epoxy) instead of welding it to the motor shaft. A touch of oil on the shaft and a few swift taps had them in place. The first time I put the fan on the motor, I had not epoxied the ferrule and it slipped into contact with the brush and prevented the motor from spinning. Second time I also used neoprene washers as a temporary buffer (removed when completed). Presto!
I purchased the Bosch motors off of as I found their price to be great, and a known entity in case I had any issues with the motors or shipping. A month ago it cost just under $140 for both motors with shipping via DHL. When I looked today, the individual price jumped to £86.17 from £37.17 and £39.37 in December. Edit: now the Amazon page states they don’t deliver to USA.
I imagine that I'm not the first to modify the motors in this manner, but I didn't see it posted elsewhere. I felt that this process was preferable over cutting the suitcase as it would cost far less to fix if I screwed up.
The speed of the new motors... fantastic. And best of all? They're plug & play and I saved a ton of cash!
Last edited by Deserion; 01-18-2018 at 11:14 PM.
01-23-2018, 11:44 AM
#4
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Reinstalled the motors last night, and let me tell you - they sure do BLOW. (I'll show myself out...)
I only need to button up the rest of the bulkhead and miscellaneous clips and it'll be all set. Also I'm cleaning the mixing chamber temperature sensors, seeing how the fans were utterly filthy when I took them out I figured that would be a good practice to ensure I'm getting appropriate temperatures.
(I'll show myself out...)I only need to button up the rest of the bulkhead and miscellaneous clips and it'll be all set. Also I'm cleaning the mixing chamber temperature sensors, seeing how the fans were utterly filthy when I took them out I figured that would be a good practice to ensure I'm getting appropriate temperatures.