I have two heaters and I want to put one in the truck as it is getting colder here in the Northeast. Here's the question. The recirculating heater has a good, original 6 volt motor that runs great but it has a bad core. The Fresh Air heater has a bad motor, but a good core. I would like to swap the recirculating heater motor into the Fresh Air heater. The motor on each one is a bit different in size and wiring. The recirculating heater motor only has one wire coming from it. Easy to figure that out. The Fresh Air heater motor has TWO wires coming out of it. Not as easy to figure out. I figure that both heater motors take their electrical ground from being bolted to the cab metal. Then what is the extra wire coming from the Fresh Air heater motor for, unless one is hot and the other is ground. Anybody??? Anybody??? Andy
If you have an ohmmeter, you could measure the resistance from each lead to ground. It will be quite low anyway, so you will want to use a zero-adjust if the meter has one. Failing that, connect one side of a battery to ground and then each lead separately and lightly at first. If you get a big spark, that is a ground lead. If one of them isn't a ground, it will most likely be a two speed motor.
Another question The collar that holds the hamster wheel fan onto the motor shaft of the Fresh Air heater does not have a set screw that holds it in place. It is annealed (?) on by having been punched all around the shaft. I can get it to shift on and off a little bit, but not much. Anybody have experience getting this fan off the motor shaft? Andy
Its supposed to have a retainer on the end of the shaft Andy. You should be able to lube it and keep working it back and forth it should come off. Chris
Lubed the heck out of it. It moves and wiggles, but does not come all the way off. There is no retainer on the end of the shaft where the collar is. You mean like a c-clip or something like that? Not there. The collar has punch marks in it. It seems as though it was just fitted onto the shaft and then punched all around the diameter of the shaft to make the collar fit snugly and not come off. Even when I do get it off, I will have to drill and tap it for a set screw in order to get it to stay on when reassembling it. I'll try to get some pics of it on tomorrow so you all can see what I mean. Andy
Andy, someone has "staked" the end of the shaft to mushroom it slightly to retain the fan. If you have access to a Dremel Tool carefully grind the shaft and hub back till the stake marks are gone, then have one of the kids hold the fan only while you tap on the shaft with a flat ended punch that is very close to the same diameter as the shaft. This should leave plenty of hub left to drill and tap for a set screw. I have bearing collars of all sizes to use for pulling or pressing but have found that small fans, blade or squirrel cage, tend to have the hub assembly bend out of alignment but hardly ever do if held by hand by one person and punched by a second.
You're scaring me Evan... ...'cause that's EXACTLY what I did before I even read your post. I took the Dremel and carefully sanded the part of the shaft that was protruding from the collar. The whole fan assembly pulled off by hand, no punching required. Now what to do...Hmm, let me think. How do we hold it back on? Can't drill and tap the collar for a set screw as the hamster wheel fan is in the way. Took the grinding attachment for same Dremel and CAREFULLY ground down the three little pins on the collar that served as rivets to hold it to the Hamster wheel. Once the mushroomed ends were ground flat, the collar popped right off. But, before I did that I drilled three additional holes throught the fan and collar so I could re-attach it with pop rivets once the collar was drilled and tapped for a set screw. Kids and I worked on it all morning yesterday and the whole unit looks brand spanking new. Andy
