John,

Another list member recently inquired about how to access his heater assembly and I am revising the instructions that someone previously posted to assist him.  These are the instructions that I used this August when I replaced the heater core in our 87 Westy Syncro, I found them handy but inaccurate in a few areas so I decided to make a few improvements before forwarding them.  The archives may already have better instructions somewhere but I have not found them.  Once I have finished with the changes that I know were needed I would love to have someone familiar with the task review them for additional adjustments if needed.
Mark in AK

----- Original Message -----
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Date: Friday, December 1, 2006 9:30 pm
Subject: Re: Noisy bearing (?) on front heater fan
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but ---
>
> When the bearing goes, you don't just replace a bearing. The whole
> motorgets replaced. And to do that you have to take the heater box
> apart. And
> to get to the heater box you have to remove the entire dash of the
> vehicle. There simply is no way around it.
>
> That's right  - take out the entire dash. Only then can you get to the
> heater box to dismantle it to get at the motor. For that much trouble,
> you don't just replace the motor bearing, you replace the motor.
> It is
> also the time you renew the padding that all the heat and air
> flaps seal
> against.
>
> I have not done this myself, but others have, and there are some
> websites of list members that show how it is done, plus
> descriptions of
> it in the archives. My understanding of it is that it takes about
> a day
> if all goes well, two days if you run into little snags along the way.
>
> While you have the dash  apart, you can do repairs, new wiring,
> etc, etc.
>
> Maybe someone will post the locations of the websites that show
> how it
> is done.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
>
> Michael Hart wrote:
> > Firstly - thanks for all the great advice regarding 'dim headlights'
> > - I'll be trying to clean the lenses first and adding a better
> ground cable
> > - after that, the relay & bulb upgrade
> > - if that's still not enough I may consider the SA grill (when
> they're back in stock)
> >
> > On to my newest problem;
> > - The front heater has a squeal at speed settings 1 & 2 (seems
> to go away on 3)
> > Searching the archives, I found articles (latest from Gerard
> Masar 11/14/06) on this,
> > and it sounds like this could be a major project
> > My questions are;
> > - Seems this is likely to be a dry fan motor bearing?
> > - Do I really need to remove & dismantle the heater box to get
> at the fan bearing?
> >   (this sounds like a lot of time...)
> > - Any idea how long the bearing could last without attention?
> > - Any fire danger (or other - blowing other circuits, damaging
> heater core....) from just continuing
> >   & letting it eventually fail?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for your excellent advice
> > Mike,
> > '87 Westy
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>