My blower motor has been on its way out for a while now. It finally got cold enough to convince me to do something about it. It would work intermittently, sometimes it would start when it was supposed to, other times I had to open the hood and tap on the motor housing to get it to blow. As I was under the hood this morning tapping on it, freezing my tail off, I caught myself trying to figure out how to best rig up a remote blower housing tapping device so I could start the fan from inside the car. It was at this point I decided to change the motor.
I found a new motor, not rebuilt, at the first store I went to for $21. I thought to myself, "That was almost too easy!" Boy was I right. More on that in a bit.
So I got home and got out my tools and set about pulling out the old one. The motor is mounted in plain view, easy to get to, easy to figure out how to unplug it and take off the vent tube. When I tried to pull it out, I noticed I was going to have to take off the engine hoist hook to get the fan wheel to clear. No problem, a quick bit of ratcheting with a half inch socket got it out of the way. Still a tight squeeze against the transmission fluid filler tube, but no big deal.
With it out of the car, I easily removed the nut holding the fan on the motor shaft in order to put the fan on the new motor. And then came the shocker, It was a different flange. The motor looked identical, but the mounting flange on mine has a gasket that includes the mounting screw grommets. The new one didn't have provisions for the grommets to fit the flange. The motor shaft was also a little bit longer on mine. Otherwise, the clock position and the bolt pattern would have fit.
No tapping this time, I took a cold ride back to the store. When I showed them the one I took off, they noticed that the computer mentioned something about a second design that was denoted by the part number on the one I took off. And of course, they didn't have that one. Oh, and the warehouse is also out, and the quickest one can get here is 4 days, sorry. So I got my refund on the wrong one and told them to go ahead and order the right one. Then I went to Auto Zone. This has always been a bad choice for me. The Zone here leaves much to be desired. But they did have the right motor, for more than double the price. I went ahead and bought it. I hate how they make me stand in line twice there. And they have 4 cash registers, but only one guy is allowed to check out per shift.
So on the way home I passed by an Advance Auto Parts Store. I should have gone there first because for less than Auto Zone'* fanless motor, I got one with a fan and paid for it without having to stand in line again. But I had to go back to Auto Zone and stand in line for a return. I got them back though, I threw away my old one in Auto Zone'* trash can.

Do you have O'Reilleys there also? How about the added fact that autozone always helps customers install parts? At ours, it seems like they have 2-3 guys working per shift and usually only one inside fetching parts and taking money.

Good that you got it fixed, I tried pulling my blower out without removing that hoist hook and cracked the blower wheel. It only lasted a few days after that before it shattered.

O'Reilly is the first store I went to. I drove across town to their biggest store (4 in town) because it is their largest one here and usually has what I need in stock. I have found them to have the lowest prices on all the parts I have bought.

The Zone wants you to buy the blower wheel at additional cost.

Well, thankfully our heater motors are easy to replace, as I did mine this weekend also.. but I went to the wreckers and pulled what I thought was a good one, off of an 87, so the coil pack was in the way.. but the install and replacement on my 90 SSE was very simple... only the motor hook had to be removed... On a side note.. never get a heater motor from an 87 Bville... even if it only has 127k KM on it.. LOL.. this one vibrates at high speed and squeeks at low speed... I guess I should have taken 30 more minutes to go through the rest of the GM section and find something newer... LOL