Blower Motor
The blower motor seemed like it could be cleaned up and serviced. From what I've read, the main aspect of increasing the air output lies in the blower cage and not the motor. I tested the motor and it worked fine, so I saw no reason to spend money on another one.
To remove the blower motor housing, use a needle nose pliers to pinch together the tabs shown.
Once the tabs are bent up, the housing can be separated by pulling the halves apart. There are two large magnets in the lower half that resist separation. This force is significant enough that I thought there was an attachment point I missed. The bottom half separates cleanly from the armature, but the upper half does not.
About the only thing you can do to the upper half is lubricate the armature shaft. In the picture at right, I replenished the felt pad with a few drops of light oil.
I wanted to powder coat the lower housing. This meant I had to remove the felt pad, ball, and retainer from the bottom.
After blasting, I masked the mating surface between the housing halves to maintain the electrical ground connection when assembled.
After installing the hardware, I used synthetic grease on the armature bearing and replenished the felt pad with light oil.
You can use the vent hole in the housing to help guide the armature into the bearing hole. Once the two halves were together, I used a needle nose to bend the tabs outward and then a c-clamp to press them in place.
SUMMARY: This was about a 2 out of 10. The housing was fairly easy to separate and there wasn't much to do beyond lubrication. Of course, the powder coating is optional.
Blower / evaporator housing
Here's what I started with. I decided that since the housing isn't load-bearing, I could get away with removing the broken material and filling the gap with a putty made from epoxy and milled fiberglass.
With the broken material gone, I could see there was a surface mismatch between the nearly separated piece and the main body. It looked like the smaller piece had twisted a little near the tab where it was still connected. The surface mismatch could be fixed with kitty hair or a similar material, but the twist will cause separation between the housing halves. This could cause leakage or reopen the crack if it's squeezed shut.
I made an ad-hoc counterweight system and experimented with different weights and locations until I found the combination that would hold the piece properly in place as the epoxy set up. That's a two pound dead blow hammer.
I was pleased with how the repair turned out. I mated the two halves together and there was no gap. I set this aside and moved on to the evaporator housing.
As shown by the slides, the evaporator box repair was straight forward.
I sanded the two halves down with 220 grit paper and purchased a two-part rattle can epoxy and covered both halves. Next I will paint them with the ceramic insulated paint to keep the engine compartment heat out of them. Also, many of the screw holes were damaged and will have to be replaced with inserts like I did on the heater housing. Stay tuned for that update.
Evaporator / Heater Box
(Cont.)