In another thread I started about heater cores, I learned that the consensus is that if the original one is in good shape, you should just keep it. I want to make sure I don't run into the same thing here.

My blower motor seems very stiff. I'm sure the oil/grease is mostly gone. I'm going to take it apart, and try to lube it up, but replacements are <$30. If I can get a good replacement for <30, that will dictate how much effort I put into repairing mine. And if it turns out that I REALLY NEED to keep my old one working, that will also dictate how careful I need to be with my repair.

Rock Auto has a Four Seasons 35582 for $26.79. Anybody had any experience with it? If it's good, I won't be spending much effort on fixing mine.

BUT... I also read here that many of GM's other vehicles use blower motors that rotate the opposite direction of the Fiero. So I don't want to get a new one, and find out that it wont work.

Most OE not just Fiero or even GM... Heater and other Blowers/Fans have 1 or both bearing as "simple" brass and gets problems when old. (Most are Sintered Bronze w/ oil in them or oil wick to lube them.)
DIY using any oil/grease just making problems worse if not now then often very soon after as old lube often doesn't like whatever and can seize the whole motor and fry the fuse If your lucky.

New replacements are likely China made. ACD NAPA and some other buy same iffy parts and tack on a big mark up. Most ACD electrical parts only have 30-90 day warranty and don't care if they die in a year. Other have longer warranty and hope you loose receipts or junk/sold the car before dies again.

I think I need a new heater blower or something is hitting the fan because making noise at higher speeds. Too hot to look this week.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 08-28-2018).]

quote Originally posted by theogre: New replacements are likely China made.

No doubt.

quote Originally posted by theogre: ACD NAPA and some other buy same iffy parts and tack on a big mark up. Most ACD electrical parts only have 30-90 day warranty and don't care if they die in a year. Other have longer warranty and hope you loose receipts or junk/sold the car before dies again.

NAPA is 12 mo/12K miles. Rock Auto is 120 days. Advance Auto and Autozone is "Limited Lifetime", which I think means, until the vehicle is sold.

quote Originally posted by theogre: I think I need a new heater blower or something is hitting the fan because making noise at higher speeds. Too hot to look this week.

Mine isn't making any noise, but the airflow isn't what it should be. And I found that the motor didn't turn freely at all, which is exactly what I expected to find. Which makes it pull more current. Which causes the speed resistors to run hotter. Which, if there are any leaves in there, increases the chance of a fire. I'm getting it ready for the RFTH in a few weeks, and my wife is coming along. A fire would be ungood. VERY ungood.

I managed to get it apart last night, but not as much apart as I wanted. On the end with the brushes (the drive end where the shaft goes through the housing), there is a pressed on keeper that I couldn't remove, so I couldn't remove the armature from that side of the housing. However, I still got oil to the bushings. It helps that one of my hobbies is slot car racing`. I have oil for electric motors in oilers with needle nose tips. It's MUCH freer now. I got it back together, but I haven't gotten it installed yet, so I don't know how the airflow is affected. It remains to be seen how long it will last. Hopefully, I'll remember to update this thread in a few weeks or months with longer term results.

I thought I was going to be eating crow on this one. When I re-installed the blower, it wouldn't run. At all. I figured that I had either over-oiled it, fouling the brushes, or I had broken a wire. Either way meant that I had gone the wrong way on the repair vs replace decision. So I pulled the blower again, on the off chance that it was something easy. And then I noticed that one of the screw holes was smaller than the others, and it was threaded. THAT is the hole that gets the ground screw & terminal. And that wasn't were I had put it. So after I put the ground screw & terminal where it needed to be, the blower worked great.

I mention this as a caution to others because it wasn't obvious to me that there was a difference. There was a screw hole that had paint missing. I thought that one was for the ground screw. The ground screw & terminal doesn't even need to come out to get the blower out, but it DOES need to come out if you plan to attempt any repairs.

Caution: off tangent discussion ahead. BTW, this setup uses a screw as an electrical conductor. This is not considered an acceptable practice in electrical design circles. Fasteners are supposed to be used only for clamping conductors together. What I was taught was that your circuit should still work even if someone replaces a metal screw with nylon. So it didn't occur to me that the screw and the threads on the blower housing was part of the circuit.