crb247’s Heater Fan Upgrade (Ford Tempo)
The heater motor unit is a generic unit out of a smattering of small ford vehicles. Staying true to the mod listed on Baxter’s site I picked up a 1989 Ford Tempo blower motor with squirrel cage ($30) and Ford tempo fan switch and resistor pack ($10 but i had to pull it out of the tempo myself) I might have damaged the pack messing around with it. The location i picked for the pack was chosen as the switch/radio console just fits in beside it and it will have good airflow. The thermostat in the Niva needs changing but I blew my budget this week so it will have to wait. My valve flows ok as the heater core and rad hoses are running at the same temperature.
The mod took about 6 hours with the main tool being a dremel with a couple of assorted bits and cut off wheels to cut the flange on the fan motor. The secondary tool was a drill with a couple of bits and a small marker. Mark the cut out line for the squirrel cage on the top baffle BEFORE you install the fan motor as it will be a lot easier than trial and error. There are a lot of bits to be trimmed out of the box and on the bottom flap and check your fit on a regular basis.
Parts list For how it should be done not how i did it.
- 1 Blower motor with plastic squirrel cage from a Ford Tempo
- For Quad fan speeds you will need the Temo's fan switch and resistor pack
- Some 12 - 14 gage automotive wire
- Some plain butt connectors and heat shrink tubing ( or soldering iron and shrink tube )
- Some sheet metal for the large torsion bracket
- 1 small 90 deg. bracket to hold up the other side
- An assortment of small nuts bolts and washers
- Some spacers to hold the squirrel cage upside down the correct height off the work surface so that the top of the cage will be level with your top baffle
- A large square flat material (sheet metal or plastic) for the top baffle
- Hot glue gun with Heavy Duty glue sticks
- Wax paper for filling in the holes.
- To read the article on baxter's excellent resource site for instructions
The reason for the large bracket on one side and the small bracket on the other is the Squirrel cage does not pull like a standard style fan would and to leave more space for airflow. The only real stress is torsional so the large bracket is used on one side to prevent the motor assembly from twisting while the other side just locates and holds the flange in the right position. There is no evidence of flex with my tests, and while there is slightly more draw it runs on the original Fused circuit with no issues. I have not experienced the "Niva jumping when the fan is switched on high" as is mentioned in the article.
I find this a very worthwhile and fun (but messy) mod and would recommend it to those that feel their heater fan just doesn't put out like it used to or their stock fan motor is shot.
Disassembly
Top View including resistor for low speed (no upper baffle as it's in Guimauve)
Front View Facing the driver when sitting in the drivers seat.
Underside view with the bottom flap wide open.
The fan is held to the shaft with a 14mm Nut that pinches a split ferrule molded into the fan hub.
The reason i switched this fan out of Guimauve is the bushings have about 1 - 1.5mm of side play or in other words worn out. You can see the dirty debris on the nose of the motor casing.
Remove the resistor - motor wire and remove the two spring clips that hold the motor into the housing to remove it.
The resistor is held in place by two press on star washers which can be removed carefully with a small flat blade screwdriver to be reused later.
This is all the basic parts other than the housing which is now empty and put off to the side.
- Fan with Nut
- Motor With 2 rubber isolators
- 2 Spring clips
- 2 star washers
- 1 Low speed resistor.
Tempo Swap
Went to one of the local scrapyards today and picked up a Ford Tempo blower motor, the resistor pack and switch. cost me $40 and a little mucking around in the snow (while the blower was on the shelf i had to dig the resistor pack and fan switch out of one of the cars in the yard.)
I pretty well followed the pattern of the build from baxters site.. except my brackets look a mess as most of my good bits of scrap were binned last fall cleaning... here's some pics as it sits now. Only thing i'm not too sure of is the clearance between the top of the squirrel cage and the heater core. The baffle in the top was sanded to really close tolerance with a dremel to prevent the air cycling around the end of the cage. Yes for anyone that guessed I cut apart the lid of a storage tote for the baffle.. the wife said i'd just cut it apart after she went to bed anyways .... I got one heck of a mess to clean up in the basement as well. Just warming up the hot glue gun i got today to seal the holes in the bottom flap.
Some pics.
My crappy brackets. LOL
Must put the resistor pack where it will have airflow.
I know butt connectors suck but this is just till the bugs get worked out. Now in Ford Tempo's they had a pushbutton selector and then a 4 position fan switch. So you MUST run the power feed through a switch to prevent the fan from running all the time. I'm presuming the one wire left over that is NOT black is the feed so we will find out shortly.
Another view of my crummy brackets and the resistor pack location.
Well time to grab the spare battery and try and make some sparks. I did not get a vent tube with the motor and don't have anything handy to make one so I’m leaving it off for now.
Crb247