Lets see if I can beat Wilton to an ATTABOY!
-Curt
From: fmiser via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 8, 2015 5:21 PM
Subject: [MBZ] Blower motor, W123
For the last 6 months or so the heater blower motor has
occasionally been squeaking. A few days ago it was clearly
getting worse. Time to do something about it.
Seeing as I am a cheapskate, I didn't really want to spend the
money to buy a replacement unless it truly needed to be
replaced. In a 123, the blower is so easy to get to I didn't
mind the prospect of getting to it repeatedly.
I pulled it out thinking I'd try automatic transmission fluid
to lubricate the bearings. But the front bearing is behind
the impeller. Since it is the one hard to get to, I expect it
is the one making noise.
I pulled the motor from the housing, thinking pleasant
thoughts about Mercedes for building these assemblies such the
_can_ be dis-assembled! The impeller is just press fit on the
motor shaft, so one the housing was off it was easy to support
the motor by the impeller and with a drift punch separate the
motor from the impeller.
That was the end of the easy part. The motor itself is not
held together with screws or bolts. The bearing supports are
staked or swaged to the side. Using a cold chisel and a drift
punch I bend bake the swaging and removed the front bearing
support. The commutator was so worn by the brushes I had to
retract the brushes a bit to get the armature out. The
magnetic field was also keeping the armature withing the
permanent magnet field.
I smoothed out the commutator a bit, used emery cloth to be
sure the bearing surfaces were smooth, greased the shaft, and
put it all back together again. I used a cold chisel to
re-swaging the case to hold the bearing support. This was a
bit tricking as the metal didn't seem to like being bent a
repeatedly. I think it will hold - for a while anyway.
The motor ran quiet when I tested the motor before putting it
all back together again. After re-assembling and
re-installing the blower it was still quiet. Then the real
test - a four hour drive. Quiet the whole time.
So I don't expect this is a truly long term repair as the
shaft at the bearing was pitted and the brushes are fairly
worn. But maybe I'll get another couple years from it.
-- Philip
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those
individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no
control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those
individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no
control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
