1997 ETC Blower Motor

[Ross]

Hey guys, I's been almost a year since my last post. My car hit the big 200

last week and she is still purring like a kitten. I still need to get with our buddies

at strutmasters.com to get the passive struts for my car but I'm in no hurry.

Today's problem is that my blower motor quit running and my subscription

to alldatadiy.com ran out. I have checked all the fuses, and all seem to be

good. I'm a little upsetwith the owners manual, it does not list which fuse

is for the main blower, only the rear blower. Anyway, this morning all

of a sudden everything went dim, like there was a heavy electrical load on

the charging system, then my blower quit blowing. I went through the archives

here, but everyone had a common sympton..a smell. My car had no smell

of electrical components burning.

Beflore I go blow $200 on a new blower, is the fan speed control module

separate from the blower, where is it , how do I check it ?

One more thing,

If I have to replace the blower motor, is this one of those things where

I have to 'Rock' the engine ? The archives have someone with a 96 ETC.

He mentioned removing a shield. There is no shield betwen my blower

motor and the valve cover.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[KHE]

You don't need to lower the engine or cut the blower housing. I did the job on my '96 Seville a couple of years ago in about two hours. The strut tower brace needs to be removed; The wiring to the ignition module needs to be unplugged; the vacuum solenoid in the vicinity of the blower needs to be removed; The rear bank of plug wires need to be unplugged from the spark plugs.

Remove the three screws that secure the inertial plate to the blower motor and remove the inertial plate. Reinstall 2 of the 3 screws to hold the motor together. Remove the 5 screws retaining the blower motor flange to the housing. Rotate the flange so the narrowest portion is between the cam cover and the blower motor. The old motor will lift right out.

The service replacement blower is a slightly different design. It does not have an inertial plate and is more difficult to install. The fan is slightly larger than the original as well which makes things more difficult but it will go in...

If I were doing the job again, I would try removing the dogbone mounts and loosening the cradle bolts enough to rock the powertrain forward to provide additional clearance for the installation of the new blower.

The good news is that the service replacement blower has a heat shield to protect it from the engine heat so it should last much longer than the original.

Make sure that you keep the plug wires 1" away or more from the blower or it will be damaged.