Questions on R&R heater blower motor

[WyoGMC]

I went to turn on the heater and the fan did not work. Well I have been putting it off because it is not my DD. Now it is starting to get cold and I need to fix it. Oh its a 68 non AC.

I determined the the motor was shot by running a hot wire to it and the motor didn't come on. I read a thread on how to change out the heater core and it was very helpfull. I ordered some other parts too. I figured while I was working in the area I could freshen up a few things. Other than the motor I got some heater cables and a rebuild kit for the controls.

I decided to try and take the bad motor out and have a head start on when the motor shows up. Got the motor out and found the fan cage had broken on the shaft, probably locked up the motor and let the smoke out of it. It did not turn as free as it should have. So now I have to buy a new fan cage too.
TIA

Finally the Questions
1. Will the hood have to come off to put in the new motor and fan?

2. Do I have to take the heater box off to put on the new cables? If I do I might as well put in a new heater core and not have to worry about it for a while.

3. And any remove and install tips would be helpfull on the heater motor, rebuild kit for the heater controls and the cables.

[Diablo de la Noche]

I have a 67 GMC, non-A/C and I am in the process of doing the same thing. If you take the hood off, it makes it a lot easier, no side cramps from bending around the hood. Fortunately, the motor was good, but the fan was missing a blade and caused it to shake. It's real easy to take off the fan, just a thin flat metal nut that screws off. There is one cable that goes through the box on the firewall. It goes through a rectangular plastic hole-cover thing and attaches to a flapper valve inside that shuts off the air. I can't imagine being able to take it off without removing all the boxes. But, that's not a bad thing. Take advantage of this. It takes maybe 45 minutes, at a leisurely pace, to take out the 8 or so 5/16 sheetmetal screws and detach the boxes from each other. Then some larger 1/2? bolts to remove the boxes from the firewall. The bolt on the box on the left might be tucked up under the firewall batting, just be careful not to damage it.
Take them all out, clean them up and repaint. You might even find some m&ms or something inside. With the paint, it might be a 2 day project, but without, I can't see it taking more than 2 or 3 hours.
Also, make sure you replace all the gaskets, ($25 from LMC plus shipping), and lube the pivot points. Use a dry lube, you can get some from a bike shop for about $10 a can and it holds up really well.

Just a word of caution about the heater controls. I went to take it apart, and started pulling off the square plastic knobs. POP! The lever broke, then another. Those things are really on there, and the levers are a cheap pot-metal.

[WyoGMC]

Originally Posted by Diablo de la Noche

... It's real easy to take off the fan, just a thin flat metal nut that screws off.

My fan is already off and i don't have the nut for it. Probably somewhere in the heater box. I looked inside and and felt around for it, but could not find it. Probabaly have to go buy a nut for that.

The bolt on the box on the left might be tucked up under the firewall batting, just be careful not to damage it.

Is this bolt inside the cab? I read about one that can be a PITA and it might help to drop the fender to get to it easier.

Also, make sure you replace all the gaskets, ($25 from LMC plus shipping), and lube the pivot points. Use a dry lube, you can get some from a bike shop for about $10 a can and it holds up really well.

I planned on getting all new gaskets if I took the heater box off. Looks like it has been off once and the PO used some Silicone gasket stuff.

Just a word of caution about the heater controls. I went to take it apart, and started pulling off the square plastic knobs. POP! The lever broke, then another. Those things are really on there, and the levers are a cheap pot-metal.

Got some new hardware coming for that incase I break it. Which I probably will break the old ones.

Thanks for the tips.

[Diablo de la Noche]

My truck is parked against the passenger side in the garage and I can't get the passenger door off, so I can't get the fender off. There were no really difficult nuts or bolts to get to as long as you have an extension, nothing wierd. So far, this has been the easiest project on the whole truck. But, some bolts are inside, some are outside. I just don't remember which ones.

I'm thinking that if you have to replace the motor and fan, you will get a new nut with it. I just pried off the fan with a screw driver, cause I knew it was toast anyway.

If I can figure out a way to shrink the pix, I will post a short rebuild semi-tutorial.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by WyoGMC

Finally the Questions
1. Will the hood have to come off to put in the new motor and fan?
.
The hood does not have to come off. You have to take the hood hinge off. Before you take it off be sure and mark around it with a fine tip Sharpie so you can get it back in the same exact place.

2. Do I have to take the heater box off to put on the new cables? If I do I might as well put in a new heater core and not have to worry about it for a while.

No, you can remove and replace the cables without removing the heater boxes. If you decide to remove the heater boxes you have to drop the inner fender panel, not the fender.

3. And any remove and install tips would be helpfull on the heater motor, rebuild kit for the heater controls and the cables.

I will see if I can find an old post of mine on the subject...

Here is one on removing the cables.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=211815

Here is one on cable routing.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=241369

When you take the rectangular plastic plug out of the inside heater box (on the right side) it is easy to unhook the cable that goes through it.

LockDoc

[WyoGMC]

Just got done with the install, everything works and I didn't break anything. It looked harder than what it was to me. I did end up having to drop the inner fender. I had to use a back-up wrench for one of the hood hinges. In order for me to reach it I had to drop the fender liner to get to it. Oh-well it was rusted out from a bad battery and needed to go anyways.

I also found out my cables seem to be in good condition. So I only changed the heater/defrost cable. The heat selector lever was tight because the flapper door probably has some rust on it and binding up a little bit. So I saved the cable for future use. Plus the ones from LMC didn't quite fit 100%. The length was good but where they attatch to the heater controls seemed backwards. I would not recomend the rebuild kit for the heater either. It comes with a black sticker. Mine is already black so I figured it would spruce it up a little bit. Wrong. The sticker overlay looks like crap. I would have been better offf buying the whole assembly. And the PO had already taken it apart once. They used a couple screws to hold bracket onto the facing. Rivets are broken. I wondered why the screws were there. And when I went to take the knobs off the levers it came off fairly easily and did not break. PO must have upgraded those already.

Oh and I had no idea the writing on the faceplate lit up. When it came out I saw there was a light bulb plug in.

The only thing that killed me on this was seeing all the other stuff I wanted to upgrade and couldn't do at this time. Dang checkbook isn't heavy enough. Hopefully that will change for me by the end of the year and I can start hording parts.

Again thanks for the advice given to me. This post is probably longer than it needed to be, but I just had to talk about the truck. I told the girlfriend how I found other stuff that needs to be done and she just shook her head and said not again I kinda got carried away on the Dodge.