Samarai wrote: ↑Mon 15 Jan, 2018 1:59 pm
Any ideas why this is has happened? none of the fuses have blown each time just the fuse losing contact and the plasti surround has melted a bit.. but maybe the blower motor is drawing too much power? the fuses are discolouring to a dirty light blue so to me indicating alot of heat but the fuses havent blown. Has this happened to anyone before?
Many thanks all!
Your Blower fan is on it's way out, and/or the blower motor rheostat is fkd. blower is an axial motor (think bench grinder) with two mouse wheels (septics call them squirrel cages) and the shaft rotates in a sleeve bearing - aka bush - which has no roller bearings or means of obtaining lubricant. Over the last couple of decades this has slowly worn out, you're likely to have excessive shaft endfloat, which in turn causes the brushes to prematurely wear and the bearing bush to fail, resulting in chirps or squeaks and slow fan speeds when the fan or AC is turned on.
Eventually, if left to it's own demise, the shaft can seize completely in the bushes and burn out the motor windings, or the rheostat, or both. Often the fuse cannot cope with the current load and overheats the holder, due to repetitive user attempts to turn on the fan and wonder why it's not blowing strongly or even at all. :think:
leaves, detritus and debris, lack of cleaning the wiper cowl, combined with rain, rotting leaf material etc eventually finds its way into the blower fan case and causes all of the above.
replace the fuse holder with another from the wrecker. refit a full compliment of new ceramic/copper fuses (not the junk ones) and use some deoxit on the contacts, followed by a thorough clean with CO cleaner, then use some switchlube contact spray sparingly on the clean contacts, fit the fuses. Should lasta great deal longer and will amazingly make many things work that for some reason weren't working before (.... I wonder why that is ;) ) :occasion5:
Then you have the blower fan and rheostat to attend to. remove wiper cowl, remove wiper arm & motor assembly, undo blower fan case clips, remove fan, clean everything in the case, with a vacuum, check fan for free and smooth shaft operation, replace the brushes (auto sparky if you can't solder) and lubricate the bushes, clean the plastic axial cages CAREFULLY with detergent. blw the motor winding clean with compressed air. replace, clean rheostat contacts etc, and make sure case is properly located and sealed. while you're in there, a good clean out of the general area is a wise thing, and checking for rust etc. This is an area where not many people venture into and it's easily cared for with minimal annual maintenance, which prevents many problems from becoming more serious issues.
