To remove the blower motor I had to remove the lower dash trim, glove box door and glove box. I then was able to unplug the blower motor and remove the unit. I'll have to admit it was tricky wrestling the blower/squirrel cage assembly out of the housing, but persistence paid off.
The squirrel cage looked to be in great shape, albeit really dirty. After removing the cage, I began looking for a way to disassemble the motor. It turns out that this is surprisingly easy. Start by removing a C-clip on the motor shaft along with a stack of washers. Be sure to remember the order of all of the parts remove as there are a lot of small washer stacks.
Next, remove the back motor cover by removing the two screws then prying the back cover open; this will reveal the brushes. There was a lot of dirt accumulated in my motor.
The brush unit is removed by rotating it clockwise about 20-30 degrees, then pulling it out. I had to lift the brushes over the end of the commutator, taking care not to let them pop out.
At this point the commutator pulled out, although I had to use a bit of force to overcome the pull of the magnets. At this point I could see lots of dirt inside the motor.
Donning a can of electric motor cleaner, I gave all the motor parts a thorough cleaning.
Once the motor parts were clean, I moved on to the fan itself. It was pretty nasty.
Who knew the fan blades were actually clear? I cleaned up the motor housing as well. Afterwards, I realized that I might be in trouble with the wife for the mess I made in the bathroom sink.
Once things were dry, I began reassembly. There were no surprises upon reassembly. I did polish the commutator shaft with a Dremel and used white lithium grease in the bushings. When I removed the motor from the car, I noted that one of the screws was missing; I replaced that screw and used a nylon spacer to replace the missing OE spacer. I also used some weatherstripping on a missing section of the blower housing.
Finally, I hit the motor end with some black Krylon paint as I scratched it up a bit when removing. A quick test showed that the fan worked after re-installation; whether or not the unit begins to whine at high RPM remains to be seen.
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