- Joined
- Mar 13, 2005
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
The following is the eagerly-anticipated sequel to @Jody Treadway's blockbuster heater-fixing thread, "Stop the insanity, save the thermostats!".
You followed Mr Treadway's advice to the letter, and yet the heat in your CJ, YJ, or TJ still sucks? When you turn on the fan, does it make a lot of fappity-fappity sounds at first before finally settling down? Is there not a lot of air coming out of the vents? Well, your blower motor is probably full of leaves. You see, the air that comes out of the heater vents is drawn in by the blower motor from the cowl vent at the back edge of the hood. Leaves, sticks, and small animals fall down through those vent slots, then get sucked into the fan.
Now, some folks out there will tell you to remove the battery, remove the bolts holding the fan on, and pull the blower motor out through the hole in the firewall into the engine compartment. That might work on a CJ or a YJ. I don't know, I've never owned one. With a TJ, however, there are a few problems with this strategy. First it's kind of a pain in the ass and it's likely to damage the foam weatherstripping on the blower motor. Also, if your blower motor is stopped up full of leaves, it's likely because the cowl itself is full of leaves. Left unattended, these leaves stop up the cowl drain, causing rain water to pond in the cowl and run into the floorboard. So get yourself a #2 Phillips screwdriver and kill two birds with one... small screwdriver.
First, remove the windshield wipers. Fold them up, then slide the retainer clip on the bottom of the wiper arm downward. That releases the lock mechanism and the entire wiper arm slides off.
Secondly, there are six Phillips screws holding the cowl on. Two are accessed from under the hood. The remaining four are along the bottom edge of the windshield. Once they're all out, lift the front edge of the cowl and slide it off.
You should get something that looks like this:
Step C, clean out all the junk that you can find under here.
In the center of the cowl, under the wiper motor, there's a single slot drain that drains water out of the cowl. Be sure to clean that one well.
Step four: There's a plastic cover on the passenger side covering the air intake. Three screws hold it on. Remove all three, and pull it off.
Like so:
If you don't have air conditioning, skip to Step Six. If you have A/C (baller!), do step five first:
Fifth, if you have air conditioning, there will be a flap for recirculation mode between you and the fan. That door might be closed. If so, it'll look like this:
Turn the ignition "on", and turn the mode dial or slider to the defrost position. The door should open. If it doesn't, and your Jeep is made prior to 1999, the door is vacuum-operated and doesn't have enough vacuum to move. Starting the engine for a few seconds should generate enough vacuum to open the door.
Turn the ignition off. You don't want to lose any fingers in the next step.
Then it'll look like this:
Step VI: Stick your hand in the hole and fish out anything you can grab. The squirrel cage will be at the bottom of the hole, around the corner toward the front of the vehicle (bottom of the photo). Remove any acorns, sticks, leaves, mouse nests, mice, squirrels, or other vermin that might be inside the fan.
Get back in the Jeep, turn the ignition on, and check the fan. There should no longer be any fappity-fappity noises when the fan first turns on, and the amount of air coming out of the vents should have increased significantly.
Reassemble everything in reverse order and take it for a test drive. Take note that the wipers need to be completely seated on the splined posts before the lock tab will move, and before the arm will fold against the windshield.
Once the Jeep gets up to operating temperature (200-210F), the heat coming out of the vents should be nausea-inducing. If so, congratulations! You are a master mechanic, the envy of all men and the object of women's affections.
If the heat still sucks, your attempts at repair have failed. Your incompetence has brought shame upon your house. You'll have to wait until the weather is warmer to remove the steering column, remove the dash, and pull the heater box out to see what else is wrong. In the meantime, your penance will be to freeze your ass off.
You followed Mr Treadway's advice to the letter, and yet the heat in your CJ, YJ, or TJ still sucks? When you turn on the fan, does it make a lot of fappity-fappity sounds at first before finally settling down? Is there not a lot of air coming out of the vents? Well, your blower motor is probably full of leaves. You see, the air that comes out of the heater vents is drawn in by the blower motor from the cowl vent at the back edge of the hood. Leaves, sticks, and small animals fall down through those vent slots, then get sucked into the fan.
Now, some folks out there will tell you to remove the battery, remove the bolts holding the fan on, and pull the blower motor out through the hole in the firewall into the engine compartment. That might work on a CJ or a YJ. I don't know, I've never owned one. With a TJ, however, there are a few problems with this strategy. First it's kind of a pain in the ass and it's likely to damage the foam weatherstripping on the blower motor. Also, if your blower motor is stopped up full of leaves, it's likely because the cowl itself is full of leaves. Left unattended, these leaves stop up the cowl drain, causing rain water to pond in the cowl and run into the floorboard. So get yourself a #2 Phillips screwdriver and kill two birds with one... small screwdriver.
First, remove the windshield wipers. Fold them up, then slide the retainer clip on the bottom of the wiper arm downward. That releases the lock mechanism and the entire wiper arm slides off.
Secondly, there are six Phillips screws holding the cowl on. Two are accessed from under the hood. The remaining four are along the bottom edge of the windshield. Once they're all out, lift the front edge of the cowl and slide it off.
You should get something that looks like this:
Step C, clean out all the junk that you can find under here.
In the center of the cowl, under the wiper motor, there's a single slot drain that drains water out of the cowl. Be sure to clean that one well.
Step four: There's a plastic cover on the passenger side covering the air intake. Three screws hold it on. Remove all three, and pull it off.
Like so:
If you don't have air conditioning, skip to Step Six. If you have A/C (baller!), do step five first:
Fifth, if you have air conditioning, there will be a flap for recirculation mode between you and the fan. That door might be closed. If so, it'll look like this:
Turn the ignition "on", and turn the mode dial or slider to the defrost position. The door should open. If it doesn't, and your Jeep is made prior to 1999, the door is vacuum-operated and doesn't have enough vacuum to move. Starting the engine for a few seconds should generate enough vacuum to open the door.
Turn the ignition off. You don't want to lose any fingers in the next step.
Then it'll look like this:
Step VI: Stick your hand in the hole and fish out anything you can grab. The squirrel cage will be at the bottom of the hole, around the corner toward the front of the vehicle (bottom of the photo). Remove any acorns, sticks, leaves, mouse nests, mice, squirrels, or other vermin that might be inside the fan.
Get back in the Jeep, turn the ignition on, and check the fan. There should no longer be any fappity-fappity noises when the fan first turns on, and the amount of air coming out of the vents should have increased significantly.
Reassemble everything in reverse order and take it for a test drive. Take note that the wipers need to be completely seated on the splined posts before the lock tab will move, and before the arm will fold against the windshield.
Once the Jeep gets up to operating temperature (200-210F), the heat coming out of the vents should be nausea-inducing. If so, congratulations! You are a master mechanic, the envy of all men and the object of women's affections.
If the heat still sucks, your attempts at repair have failed. Your incompetence has brought shame upon your house. You'll have to wait until the weather is warmer to remove the steering column, remove the dash, and pull the heater box out to see what else is wrong. In the meantime, your penance will be to freeze your ass off.
