HELP. Blower Replacement from Under Hood

[GTWilliams]

I can't believe I did not bookmark one guy's post on how he replaced his blower from the under the hood. He had good pics. I have a '77 250 XLT with AC. My blower looks like this one. Can someone find that post for me? PLEASE.

[GTWilliams]

It took me 90 minutes to re-find this post. "I changed the blower motor, from the engine bay"

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/99189 ... e-bay.html

[1972hiboy]

thats a good write up. I was wondering where the blower motor was on these setups. Last year I had thought my 73 SCS was going to need a motor, turned out to be something minor and dodged the bullet but I was looking around the ac/heater box asking myself where the heck did they put that thing?

[GTWilliams]

With a Dremel grinder wheel and acting like a dentist, you can get these rivets out. Be careful to not damage the housing. One is really close to the valve cover. Grinder wheel gets about 1/8th" away. I cut the center of the butt of rivet.

[GTWilliams]

Inside of cover. Notice rivet hole pattern.
Is that asbestos?

[GTWilliams]

1/8th Allan wrench goes against the FLAT part of the center piece. (Circled). You need a 4" long allan wrench. It is only about 1/2" inside the wheel so you cannot see it. I marked the wheel slot that the allan wrench went into because I had to work at it so long. See next post.

[GTWilliams]

This is how it looks when you do it. I found I had to angle the wrench slightly forward or towards the front of the wheel.

[GTWilliams]

You can see how close the screw is to the front of the wheel. My camera could see it but I could not. Bottom line...I failed. Allan head stripped. In hindsight I should have let some Liquid Wrench of PB Blaster sit on the nut for awhile!!!. I need to now cut out the wheel AND motor. New wheel is $19-29.
I should say I'm not very mechanical so this is likely my own fault. We'll see how it goes today.

[GTWilliams]

Brutal day. I needed to cut out the cage which was not easy. And the motor was even more difficult. There are four crews holding on the blower motor. They are 5/16ths. We only got two off with a wrench. The other two fell off when I was grinding away at S clips. Then I had to cut the circular frame while in a fully extended position while not damaging the housing. This job would be physically difficult even if I was healthy. But the full reach contortionist moves were no fun. This would be a good job to do with a friend where you can take shifts and get it done. There are no shortcuts. This was designed to come from the other direction. I only have a grinder and a a Dremel. Both got used a lot.