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Thread: 1991 previa blower motor died

  1. #1
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    Post 1991 previa blower motor died

    My heater fan just quite, I am not sure how to trouble shoot what went wrong, switch or fuse, resister wire or similar on the motor or the motor. Would someone have the repair and owners manuals PDF and some trouble shooting idea with pictures. I tried a few sites like pdfonline and others to get the manuals and just get a run around like this Genieo download

    All help would be appreciated

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    Re: 1991 previa blower motor died

    Previa fan resistors are pretty solid, but even if it failed the blower would still work on high. Previas have weak fan switches, but when they fail it's usually only the med/high setting (max high and the lower settings will typically still work). My guess is it's a bad blower motor, but you should check the fuse/breaker 1st. Another test is to disconnect the motor input connector (2 position plug with one red wire & one blue wire going to it), then put 12vdc directly into the motor to see if it works. The blower motor is accessed from under the hood. It's not that terrible to replace. You need to remove the plastic intake air scoop, then the plastic box behind that. That box splits in half, and the blower motor is inside it. Tim

    PS: I've seen this problem a couple times & both times it was a bad blower motor. They tend to fail at around 150k - 200k miles, but of course this will depend on your climate and how often and what speed you run the blower. It's been too many years since I did the job to remember more details than I posted...........I may even be wrong on thinking the entire housing needs to come out. You may be able to split the box while it's in place and change the motor then...............Just can't quite remember. Good luck. Tim

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    Re: 1991 previa blower motor died

    my blower motor died over the summer too... I'm very sure it's the blower motor, but as tim said, the fan switches in these vans are also crap, typical old toyota garbage
    I replaced the switch with one from the junk yard and cleaned up the "new" one well and lubed it up
    http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...ade-conversion

    I didn't take pics of the blower motor replacement (was in a hurry) but it can be done over a weekend once you have a new motor
    the best motor is from the dealer, but it is stupid expensive at $150.... for much less, you can get an aftermarket motor... I got a brand new four seasons motor (made in canada, not 3rd world junk)
    the problem with this motor is, it does not come with a connector to hook up to the sub harness that's inside the blower box... I took apart the old motor and stole the connector from it... I cut one of the longer contacts off and then I soldered both wires onto the back side of the connector and taped it all up... you will see what I mean when you dig into it... you will want to match the polarity to the correct terminals of the connector, so just look at the sub harness colors (blue and black) and match them up to the red and black wires respectively... if you do this way, you won't have to destroy the original harness or hardware it, which is what it seems like four seasons expects you to do.... NO WAY!!!

    as for how to take the blower assembly out, pop the hood and remove the 4 screws holding the huge air duct scoop that is right in front of you and it slides off after you work it around the hood latch... now you need to pull out the entire blower assembly that sits behind that scoop... first remove the coolant and power steering reservoirs and just flop them out of the way... then disconnect the A/C compressor clutch wires.... the gray connector must be unclipped by pulling/prying UPWARDS on the tab, don't push it in like you typically would with many other connectors... you won't get it off if you do that and get frustrated and may break it!... once that's done, remove 2 of the 10mm nuts at the top sides of the blower box that is holding it to the firewall (there are nothing at the very top edge, only the sides and bottom)... you then remove the 2 10mm bolts that holds the top cover of the blower box... it snaps in place so unclip that and the cover comes off... you can now disconnect the sub harness... one that's done, remove the rest of the 10mm nuts around the sides and bottom side of the blower box, and you can then pull it off the van

    getting to the blower motor:
    there are two metal shields in the box... they are probably all rusty by now... the "belly" pan that is exposed to the outside behind the radiator fan, and the mostly flat donut shield inside the box... remove the belly pan with the 5 (I think) JIS crosshead screws, they're not that tight, so a good standard philips screwdriver will work... there are 4 JIS crosshead/8mm hybrid screws that attaches the motor to the blower box... they might be seized from rust so spray some PB blaster on the screws before you attempt to get them out or they will snap off! It is a good idea to take off the donut shield on the other side so that you can spray PB blaster on the other side of the screws... ok, so assuming everything goes well, you can then put the new blower motor in after you transfer the squirel cage fan assembly over to the new motor... there's a clamp that holds the fan onto the motor shaft... just use some pliers to get it off then while having someone hold onto the fan, strike the motor shaft with a punch or screwdriver to get it off... don't hit the motor shaft directly with a hammer or you'll bow out the end or damage the fan... the fan should just slide into the new motor... put everything back together in reverse order of course

    I opted to replace the metal shields in mine because they were all rusty from many canadian winter salt sprays.... I could've sanded off the rust and painted them, but it was too much work... I got relatively rust free ones from the junk yard, cleaned them up, primed with zinc rich primer, and painted both shields with thick coats of enamel... hopefully that will last better than the bare plated steel donut shield and the crappy factory painted belly pan... I also replaced the resistor because the ceramic had cracked... price wasn't bad from toyota so I opted for it rather than aftermarket... I also replaced the screw brackets that holds the resistor in place because those too were rusty... those too were painted of course I had to replace the fan motor screws and at one point drill out two of the holes and tap out the holes for larger screws as they seized and broke off! I used antiseize on the replacement fan motor screws, I suggest you do the same



    like I said, this project will take you a good part of a day if not a weekend just dealing with all the rusty and dirty pieces... you can cut corners and rush through it and be done in like 2 hours, but I took my time and cleaned everything up, including getting rid of the crap on the A/C evaporator (exposed once you took off the blower unit)

    good luck!
    Last edited by TheMAN; 02-09-2014 at 05:16 AM.

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    Re: 1991 previa blower motor died

    Thanks for the information, I will be planning to do this ASAP as soon as I was sure I needed a new motor, but it seems like the most probable. Would you happen to know of a service manual for this van online PDF form?

    thanks again

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    Re: 1991 previa blower motor died

    Thanks Tim , that sounds about right as I have 226K on it now and it is used almost 6 months up here all the time

    Cheers

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