Is there any way to squirt a small amount of oil or WD40 in there from the
top vent or with the radio out?  Or is sealed inside a housing that you have
to do the whole dash de-installation to get to?  I think these fan motors
squeal a little bit long before they need replacing.  My van came from
Arizona and there is dust and very dry air their taking its toll, but I am
sure a dab of oil would solve the intermitten squeal for a good long while.

Thanks
Not up for removing the dash to get at a minor annoying sqeaking.
Dave in Denver

>From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
>Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Noisy bearing (?) on front heater fan
>Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 00:24:38 -0600
>
>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but ---
>
>When the bearing goes, you don't just replace a bearing. The whole motor
>gets 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
>>
>>
>>
>>____________________________________________________________________________________
>>Cheap talk?
>>Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates.
>>http://voice.yahoo.com
>>
>>

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