Blower motor upgrade - Fiero

[sbxke]

I only recently purchased a 1968 fixed head that's in great unrestored shape. The blower motor was seized and the air box needed TLC so I followed the Pontiac Fiero blower motor upgrade route that seems so popular after cleaning up the air box and replacing the heater core. My car is negative earth and the Pontiac Fiero motor turns clockwise and is totally useless, moving almost no air. The cage fins are clockwise as well. I cannot find the original upgrade article on this site or the internet in general. Does anyone have a link? The photos that I looked at had fins for the counterclockwise configuration. My question is, where did you find a Fiero blower motor and cage for counterclockwise configuration? I've spend hours searching the web and my local parts store has come up empty as well!

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[sbxke]

In addition, I thought that maybe the earlier cars with positive earth would rotate the Pontiac Fiero fan in an anti clockwise direction, but I still don't know where the appropriate vein fan cage was sourced from. Any ideas?

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[cactusman]

Can't help re sourcing a motor but if the Pontiac one uses field coils rather than a permanent magnet the polarity won't matter....it will spin the same way which ever way it is connected.

[kingzetts]

Here's a link to the original post on this mod.

http://www.myetype.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2240

The standard fiero motor will turn either direction depending on its voltage feed. All the ones I have seen rotate counterclockwise (viewed from above looking down) in a negative earth car if the motor is earthed through its body. Similarly the fiero cage has blades swept counterclockwise as per the article. I've sourced 3 or 4 fiero units from US breakers and they were all the same.

[Heuer]

I bought a 'Fiero' cage that turned in the "wrong" way. There are two versions, you need to be sure of the part number. Details of my experiences are in the thread.

[sbxke]

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I've searched high and low, spent an hour at my auto parts store checking every model on Kingzetts list to no avail! The fan blower motor and cage that I bought only has one electrical connection, and thats positive. The ground comes through then fan body and mounting plate. To reverse the polarity would firstly be near impossible to isolate the positively charged mounting plate, and secondly, that would be dangerous! Even eBay only offers clockwise blower motors and fans that will fit within the air box. I just don't understand that some of you have been able to source counterclockwise fan motors and cages and they just don't exist in North America! And no one has a source or a part number. I'm extremely frustrated! I've been working on just this part of the car for over a month.

[Heuer]

You can reverse the polarity of the motor to change its direction. You need an AC Delco 18-8420 fan wheel. You need an anti clock rotation with the fan blades swept forward in the anti clock direction.

[sbxke]

Thanks. I'll try sourcing that fan blade today. I'll also try sourcing the FOUR SEASONS 35582 CCW motor today.

[sbxke]

I finally found a blower motor that should fit based on the Four Seasons 35582 blower motor part number that does run CCW. BUT, ..... the AC 15-8420 blower fan listed as a vintage item is NO LONGER AVAILABLE. I'm presently trying to source a blower fan from auto wreckers with no luck yet.

After all of the difficulty sourcing parts I wouldn't recommend anyone going this route since the parts are no longer available.

[44DHR]

There are plenty of used serviceable Fiero Fans/Blowers around from US Ebay suppliers at various times and I have bought several from the US using Ebay. With the Ebay Global Shipping Programme they also now show the UPS freight and Customs charge so you have an all inclusive price on purchase. Perhaps when people are searching they are not using the correct US search words.

There is a US one currently on Ebay with a Buy it Now price of £20.72 for the correct directional fan and motor, but unfortunately this one comes complete with the complete bulkhead firewall mounting, so the freight is far higher than normally what I pay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-FIERO-HE ... SwxndXTopq

I don't usually pay more than £20 for the motor and cage plus half that for shipping US seller to my UK door, so I certainly wouldn't put people off this worthwhile proven modification.

regards,

Dave

[kingzetts]

And, for example, current eBay listing for the 15-8420 fan cage (presumably NOS on someones shelf) which I think is actually in the USA.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272230992574

I agree with Dave (44DHR) that this remains a viable mod, albeit perhaps getting a bit harder to locate the cages - the motors are widely available used and new. But there are also good alternatives, a search of this forum will bring up a number such as the MGB upgrade fan or the LR Defender fan.

[44DHR]

Thanks John for supporting my post as I felt I had to comment after all the good work undertaken on this alternative blower motor and fan which has proved itself as a good effective modification. Just because someone has difficulties sourcing the correct motor and fan - or sources the wrong one - is no reason to dismiss this upgrade. I'm not sure where "sbxke" is in the world to be having all this much trouble - we are all here to help !

The Ebay seller I referred to offering the motor and blower is one of the large US wreckers I have used before and if you want parts from such US used parts suppliers who are well used to the Ebay Global Shipping Programme, just contact them through the system and explain what you want. They will source the items and UPS them up and send them for an all in agreed price. Why not order a couple and cover your costs ?

The motors are no trouble to source and used widely across US cars. It is more the fans that - as John said - are the harder part to locate, but there is no issue over using second hand fans as they don't exactly wear out if you don't want to source a more expensive new old stock fan.

regards,

Dave

[Quattrofrank]

Have purchased this upgrade, alltough not yet received due to some others parts that I bought from the same supplier are in backorder.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291704533919?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Why arent other using this, is the fiero motor even better?

[paulsco]

You can get blower fans from here: http://apairltd.com/

(Under blower motors in the catalogue).

Note that there are 1/4" shafts and 5/16" shafts; not sure what size you want.

They are a UK company, possibly the subsidiary of a company in the USA.

I say that because if you click on the catalogue all the references are to the USA company.

I have used the UK company for AC parts and although no prices are quoted, their prices are very reasonable.

Just phone the UK number with the catalogue reference.

Paul

[kingzetts]

Have purchased this upgrade, alltough not yet received due to some others parts that I bought from the same supplier are in backorder.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291704533919?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Why arent other using this, is the fiero motor even better?

Simply, yes. The eBay item from Wilkinsons uses a metal fan of the same diameter as the original and may be rather better than the original but unlikely to be as good as the Fiero which is a larger-diameter fan which needs the air box cutting to accept.

This has all been covered in some detail here http://www.myetype.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 0&start=90 and in a few other threads on the forum.

[Heuer]

The downside to using the Fiero blower is that it is so powerful it overcomes the heater matrix after a few minutes. Great for cold air though; I was considering fitting an uprated heater matrix but I never followed through on the idea.

[sbxke]

I've completed the job! I took the stock clockwise fan that came with the 2005 Chev Silverado assembly that my auto parts store mistakenly sold me and I cut out the centre, reversed it, made a circular brakes from an aluminum plastic sandwich material that I've used for other applications, and sewed it together with stainless steel wire that I use for safety wiring bolts on my race car, and voila, it works. I am amazed how loud the fan and motor are when in high speed mode but it blows plenty of air. I did build a 100w 1ohm resistor into the twin relay system that I built following your plans and it works perfectly for the slow speed setting. Thanks for all of your help and patience!

[dividjones]

If anyone is having trouble getting a Fiero fan motor, when I was in the States I ordered a new one and was sent a fan motor for a Lincoln Continental 1995-2002 (4 Seasons 35362) in error.
As it turned out it was a fortuitous mistake as, having done a Fiero conversion in the past, I found this one easier to fit.
It has a wide flat plate attached, big enough to cover the hole in your heater box without having to use/butcher your existing fan plate. It also has a pair of leads already attached to the motor making wiring in easy. Its appearance has a squarer design so looks a little more like the Smiths original than the Fiero motor. You will still need the Fiero anticlockwise plastic fan cage though.