Joe's Dash Heater Fan Replacment ?

[ajducote]

Joe,

Did you replace your dash heater fans yet? I was wondering how that went? Did you take pictures for everyone else to see? I changed mine before I was a member of POG and did not take any pictures.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I did take pictures Andre. I thought they would be boring:o

I will download them.

That stinking brass fitting that screws in from the bottom that the drain hose hooks up to took a foot and a half cheater bar to break free. PITA

Everything was just as expected.

Mine are assemblies: motor, squirrel cage and bracket, 159 a piece.

Our cockpit is very much disassembled.

I am finding things and learning things everywhere.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Here is the dash opened up and looking at the box that contains the a/c evaporator, heater core and the blowers, one on each side.

If one of the two blowers goes out the corresponding ducts loose all airflow, the blowers are completely isolated from each other.

All 4 ducts from the left blower supply the drivers side and additionally one of the ducts from the right blower supplies the drivers side. The remaining 3 ducts on the right blower supply the pass. side.


I have the luxury of having almost no converter installed accessories here. I have also seen other buses that are packed full of additional things to deal with.
4445


Here is the left blower. It is butted up to the wall so in order to get it out the whole assembly needs to slide towards the door about 4 inches.
4446


I had to take some brackets loose that were attached to the heater and a/c hoses. Note the petcock to blead air out of the heater hoses when draining the antifreeze.
4447

Here is looking up from behind the front bumper. 3 fastening bolts and a drain line.
4448

4449

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Here is something that surprised me. It is an a combination air and electric horn and it is Prevo not converter.

I knew I had these they are operated by the button on the steering wheel but I never noticed the air line going to them, I always assumed they were electric.


This is the bottom of the bus underneath the door
4450

The electric supplies power to something that spins and emits sound out of the slots between the horns
4451


Here is behind the bumper looking left towards the door, you can see the air line to the left and the electric aspect on the right.
4452

Anyone ever seen a horn like this before. It has a great tone. We do have air horns on the roof but operated from an air switch on the floor I depress with my left heel.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

This is not Chinese. It is dried glue that at one time attached all the insulation on the front of the bus.

Mixed emotions here. Should be way better but also much room for improvement and an easy fix. In its current configuration this stuff probably did little to nothing.

4453

4454

4455

We have much insulation left over from my generator bay redo and I am going to reinstall the original and add additional over it.

Should go a LONG way to keeping things more comfortable up front. No wonder it gets cold down at the steps in the winter.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

This is clever. I posted this once before. On the bottom front corner of the bus under the door I have 2 grease fittings that are hooked to plastic line that go up to each of the 2 door hinges. The fittings were covered with the undercarriage spray foam.

4456


This is where they come up through the floor. Excuse the mess cleanup is in order:o
4457

Here is the top hinge
4458

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Joe, from here that grey stuff looks more like an attempt at sound proofing, what do you think?

JIM

[hhoppe]

Joe: Both of my fans operate ok. The front dash air fan has a loud whine, whizz whirr, humm that changes tone with fan speed change. I would like to quiet it down. Do you have any suggestions of means of attack. Thanks in advance.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Harry if I had to guess I would say you are hearing and experiencing the beginning of the end of one of them.

The squirrel cages are delicate lite aluminum and it may be one of them singing but if ya gotta get to them I do not know how much sense it would be to put it back together with the old blower motors.

Once I reconfigure the step-well to open towards the door like most others that will become a whole nother huge aspect of the job having to also remove and replace all that too.

[Joe Camper]

If u have an xl or an xlv and the left dash blower has begun to make noise I have found and preformed a wonderful solution to disassembling half the cockpit to get it replaced lIke I have displayed above.

U remove it from the front by drilling and removing the rivits on the center stainless panel below the windshield. By removing the rivets down the sides and across the bottom of the piece u can roll it up and away and reach in to that motor and replace it in about 4 hr instead of days of disassembly getting it by removing the step slide and a pile of other components inside.

[Gil_J]

Joe,

I'd like to see pictures of that.

[Joe Camper]

Gill I have them somewhere but on come Sim card in storage.

That piece is ribbed and when u remove the side and bottom rivits it quite easily rolls up and lifting from the bottom it comes away from the bus quite easily without damage.

Usually most paint jobs get about half way into that stainless piece below the windshield so some of the rivits have been filled in and painted over u wI'll be drilling out.

After switching out the blower motor and reriveting the rivits in the paint field need to be refilled and touched back to match.

If u have never noticed all the rivits in the paint r the same as the rest but those always have a dab of filler on them to look better when they do get paint. That's the only difference from those and the rivits down in the polished stainless field.

Some of the older cc had the dash bump out built over the step slide in a fashon that did not allow for disassembly at all. Other conversions dictate needing half the tool box a dozen different aspects of disassembly before getting to it. Then there is the flooring and my way u don't even touch it.

My suggestion requires a drill a rivits gun 2 7/16 wrenches and some wire crimpers. I've done it both ways and the ladder is a way better aproach.

This only applies to the xl and xlv the XLII AND THE H'S r different.

[dale farley]

Joe,

I looked at some of the pictures in the beginning of this thread, and nothing about tearing into the dash fan looks like something I want to do. I have cleaned my heater and filter before, but I would hate to have to remove it.

[Joe Camper]

Did u go see if your front door hinges r greasable from fittings at that bottom front corner? Mine were sprayed over with foam. It was the plastic line coming from the hinges going down that led me to them. Don't think all chassis had that don't know when they stopped doing it.

[Joe Camper]

Here is a thread worth revisiting. Its a bit embarrassing as dirty and unattended things were in these pics but it was an 84 xl I had and I was quite green around the ears at the time. But go look at what's involved in pulling the left hand blower motor for the dash on an xl and xlv from inside. What I pictured did not even include a step slide or a finished floor or the dash extension that petroudes out like cc and some other converters added.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

Now go outside.

Go to the front of the bus. U will be looking at a rectangular piece of stainless centered under the windshields with a few ribs going across the bottom. If u simply remove the rivits up the 2 sides and across the bottom u can then quite easily pull it away far enough to be looking right at that motor and within fingers reach.

This takes days of work and turns it into hours.