Good luck. I think it took about 4 hours in all
Have just repaired the non-functioning blower unit on the drivers side (UK 1993 Model).
As there was little in the way of a detailed description in the archives concerning the removal/replacement for this side, I will describe the procedure I adopted, which may be of use to someone else in the future.
Symptoms were that the blower would only operate at high speed setting only, indicative of Darlington Transistor failure.
Gaining Access:
Removed Instrument Pack
1) Remove the 3 black posidrive screws from the instrument pack surround, (one each side, one at top centre)
2) Flip out the 2 plastic cover clips in upper corners of the instrument pack
3) Remove the 2 brass coloured screws which are behind the clips.
4) Ease out the instrument pack (carefully) until you have enough room to get to the 2 multiplugs.
5) Mark the plugs so you know which way the go back in again, they do not appear to be idiot proof, and can go back in either way
6) Release plugs by squeezing plug clips at top and bottom of plug
Remove instrument pack and set aside.Remove Knee Bolster
1) Remove the plastic retaining clip at the top RH side of the bolster, and allow bolster to drop down, exposing the fuse box and relays
2) The lower edge of the bolster is clipped to a black steel bar which goes across the upper part of the footwell. Remove the 2 black bolts on the outboard side of the bar (8mm socket). The other end of the rail does not need to be unbolted, the inboard end is sort of telescoped on to smaller section of bar, and there is sufficient movement to remove the rail complete with the bolster still attached.
At this stage, I could see that access to the blower was still pretty tight, the upper part of the blower/duct was hidden by another air duct which leads to the side vent. I decided to remove this to allow better access.
Remove side vent ducting
1) Prise out the surround to the side vent. It is held in with 2 metal spring clips, top and bottom. I used a thin wide edge to get behind the surround and prised it off. The clips are pretty tight, and it takes a bit of a grunt.
2) With the surround off, the vent outlet can be removed. Its held lightly in place by plastic nipples each side set in to a recess. Take care not to lose the plastic thumb wheel, it is not fixed to the vent outlet.
3) Remove the vent duct. (access through the instrument pack opening) This is black plastic, about 10 inches long with an elbow. The inboard end attaches to the windscreen vent. It will just slide off the windscreen vent. Once off, it was not easy to remove it from the opening, things are kind of tight with all the steering column bracing. In the end, I managed to wriggle it out through the side vent opening, (it bit of mild soap around the side vent opening helped.
Remove the fuse box/relay bracket from the blower.
1) The lower nuts are easy, use a 11mm socket, they also hold in place another relay bracket, which will come away as soon as nuts are slacked back.
The upper nuts are not so easy, it was hard to spot them at first. If you look through the instrument pack opening you will see a thick loom of wires running from left to right. This loom is cable tied to the fuse box/relay bracket. The 2 upper nuts for the bracket are just above the loom. I needed to use a bar to prise the loom down a bit to get access. A long 1/4 inch drive extension bar ("wobble" type) is needed to slack off the 2 upper nuts. Do not remove the nuts, just slack back a few turns. (Note: All four nuts are lock nuts)
2) With the lower two nuts removed, the upper 2 slacked back, remove the bracket from the blower housing. It wont move far, way to many cables going to it.
Removing the Blower
1) Remove the vacuum line from the brass coloured actuator on the RH side of the blower.
2) Disconnect the 2 wiring connections from the blower unit. This are located at the top of the housing, one is a flat black connector, about 1 inch across, the other is a brown triangular cross sectioned connector.
3) Remove the 2 blower unit attachment bolts (13mm) . The lower on is on the LH side of the blower, and is easy to access. The upper bolt is on the RH side, and not so easy. I used 10 inch 1/4 inch drive with a UJ to a 13mm socket. You can see the bolt quite clearly through the side vent opening, and by looking at the bolt though the opening, guide the socket to it from below.
On the LH side of the footwell is the blower outlet ducting, blue pliable plastic, attached to two 3 inch dia brown plastic pipes. Its only a push fit, so just ease the blue ducting off the pipes.
Now to remove the blower. The recirc flap is on the lower edge of the blower, with the hinge on the rear of the blower housing (towards you as you look at it). Grab the front edge of the flap and pull it down to full open (goes about 45 degrees). This action closes the top fresh air inlet flap (you wont see it at this stage). In this position, the blower housing should drop down. (You may need to do abit of wriggling with it),. As it comes down, rotate the whole housing towards the centre consul, which allows the blue ducting to come over the steering column.
With luck everything should come clear, and you can remove the blower unit from the car.
Repair of the Blower:
I tested the components, and found only the Darlington had gone tits up, but as I had previously bought all the components which may have been needed, I replaced all the diodes and the resistor as well.
Circuit board is held in place by three 1/8 inch rivets. I drilled them out, and used small nuts/bolts when replacing the board.
Parts came from RS Components:
Darlington MJ 11016 RS Number 295-179
Resistor 2.5W 68 Ohm RS Number 151-776
Capacitor 0.01uf RS Number 829-586
Diode IN5401 RS Number 261-299
Diode IN4004 RS Number 261-176
T3 Transistor Mounting Kit RS Number 298-437
The blue duct is fixed to the blower outlet with gaffers tape. I replaced the tape, make sure it is well secured.
Refitting is basically reversal of the above. Getting the blower back into place could be awkward, I was lucky, it went in first time. The blue ducting has to be attached to the blower, there is no way you could re-attach the duct to the blower once the blower is in place.
To get the blower back in, the blue duct has to introduced to the opening first, as it goes up, carefully rotate the blower unit so that the duct goes over the steering column. You really need about 3 hands for this, but like most people I managed with two.
Also, secure the two electrical connectors so they dont get trapped behind the blower, or between blower and fuse box bracket)
