1970 "direct blower replacement" is anything but...

[jazbo]

So I ordered a
https://www.autopartswarehouse.com/ford-parts/ford-thunderbird-parts/thunderbird-blower-motor/1970
replacement for my 1970 with climate control/AC. Many sites, incl Rock Auto list this as a drop in, but it is not. The OEM motor is about 3/4" longer than the "direct replacement". Because of that the tip of the replacement shaft doesn't even reach the factory wheel attachment point. So what to do...

[At least the munting flange is the same as the old motor]

There are no other motors I can find for this car, so I decided to shorten the shaft of the new motor, insert a rigid 5/16" coupling on it, and splice a new piece of 5/16" shaft on to lengthen it appropriately so that it will be long enough to fit into the factory blower wheel. Kind of a PITA, but only $12 in materials at McMaster Carr.

BTW, nice steel blower wheels on these cars. Plastic crap would have been useless by now. It cleaned up nice on my wire wheel.

Will let y'all know how it goes.

 

[jazbo]

Ok, it worked but was quite a bit of work. No easy alternative through...

First, cut of about a 1/2" of the new motor shaft. I used a carbide blade on a Multimaster.

Install the 5/16" coupler and shaft extension.

Fit the wheel onto the shaft as low as possible without the wheel binding. Tighten the set screws

Cut the shaft off flush with the end of the wheel, Put a bag over the motor to prevent steel shavings from getting inside it.



I took apart the old motor and re-used the factory connector using solder and heat-shrink. That way I didn't have to splice inside the hard-to-get-at cowl. Also had to drill out two of the "keyhole rivets" to get the motor back in. Used RTV to better secure the new blower to the cowl.

 

[Excaliburss]

To do the job, did you have to take the fender off ? Or could you get to it a different way ?

 

[jazbo]

I didn't have to remove the fender. The blower is accessible through the passenger sidewall after you remove some of the ducts and loosen the HVAC controller box. Then remove the fresh-air vac actuator, then the plate it is mounted on. That gives you the access to the blower.

 

[Excaliburss]

Thanks a lot for this info.

 

[jazbo]

Glad to help!

 

[jazbo]

So you know, It was quite difficult to get the old blower to unlock from the keyhole features.

 

[Lakomaa]

Thanks a lot for solving a problem for me. I'm just about to replace the blower motor. The squirrel cage is now removed from the blower motor and the instructions above have been of great help. However, I forgot to measure them before disassembly. How critical is overall length?

 

[jazbo]

Well, I may have some bad news for you. The airflow I get is now very low. I think perhaps the different geometry of the blower and resulting wheel position have reduced the airflow a lot. I'm actually looking for a used OEM one now :/

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Well, I may have some bad news for you. The airflow I get is now very low. I think perhaps the different geometry of the blower and resulting wheel position have reduced the airflow a lot. I'm actually looking for a used OEM one now :/

If it’s just an electric motor why not have it rebuilt? There’s plenty of places that rebuild electric motors. Take the old original one and get it rebuilt. I will agree that a lot of the replacement parts are way off spec. Probably the same place making it and there is many different vendors selling it. Thanks for letting me know. My blower doesn’t work either. I know the heater works because if I let the vent open I get cooked by the heat it puts out. I guess I’ll end up taking it to a place to have the motor remanufacured.

 

[jazbo]

Let us know how the rebuild works. Mine was beyond help since I scavenged the connector off of it. I'll let you know how the used goes.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Let us know how the rebuild works. Mine was beyond help since I scavenged the connector off of it. I'll let you know how the used goes.

have you tried sourcing the motor from another car? Try the Galaxie? or maybe Lincoln? They may have the same setup as the Tbird. Ford did use a number of parts across all vehicles.

 

[Lakomaa]

I had the replacement blower motor installed (with a shaft extension like the one above). Worked well, and the air flow was better than with the original motor.

 

[jazbo]

darn, now I have to figure out why mine doesn't blow much.

 

[Lakomaa]

The trickiest part was to get the blower assembly not to wobble; that the hole in the OEM squirrel cage was larger than 5/16" and not centered, certainly made it more difficult.

 

[jazbo]

The way I read it, the blower for the 70 T-Bird was unique to the T-Bird and Mark-III.