The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Heater Squirrel Cage Removal

So I am in the process of cleaning up and checking the heater that came in my truck. After reading a few posts on the subject I began to disassemble it. All went smooth until I came to removing the squirrel cage.
There was a 'D' type lock that snapped on top of the center post which I was able to remove but when I tried to remove the silver center piece thing that holds the squirrel cage to the heater motor it refused to budge and separated itself from the squirrel cage in the process.
So how does the center silver piece come off?
And with them separate now does this mean the whole deal is broken?

If you click on the link in my signature it should take to you my blog site and a picture of the silver piece I'm referring to.

oh and the truck is a 54 but i believe the heater is a year or two earlier as it had maroon knobs. Its just the basic Heater/Defroster Airflow one.

Thanks in advance,

Chooglin

I recently did a restoration of my '59 heater. It's not the same as yours but the squirrel cage design is probably similar.
The silver hub on mine was a tight fit onto the motor shaft. I was robbing the motor from my '58 parts truck heater and used a screwdriver to pry up on the bottom all the way around it's diameter. I broke the '59s hub from the cage (It was riveted on) but was succesful in removing the '58s cage without incident.
truckandcardshop has replacement squirrel cages for $25. You might can rivet or screw your hub back on though.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry,

I did pretty much the same thing you did, was trying to pry the hub off from the squirrel cage when it popped free of the cage. I have about a 1/4'' maybe a bit more of travel on the hub but thats it.

Ill check out the truckandcardhsop but would still like to get the current hub to release and come off if i can.

Anyone got any other ideas?

thanks

Chooglin

I think most of those squirrels have claws to prevent them slipping on the shaft, if you can get hold of it tight without damaging it, and hold the shaft, try turning it on the shaft to "unscrew" it

Bill

The shaft on mine had a flat on it that matched the hub to keep it from slipping.
It had a thin retainer with a clawed inside area (it also had a flat to match) to hold the fan assembly in place.
Other that the shaft needing cleaning and some WD40 to reduce the amount of resistance, the hub was just a snug fit.
In my case, I think I pried too much in one direction on the first. I use two screwdrivers opposite to get off the second.
Putting it back on will be much easier
Jerry

Thanks for all the help guys. Just got it off and man was it a tighter than tight fit.
Ended up doing like you suggested Jerry. Pried a couple of the fan/vent openings up a bit wider for access and went at it with some real beefy screwdrivers. Thought the entire housing was going to bend on me but it ended up being stronger then i thought and little by little with quite a bit of force the little bugger finally popped off!!

Now i just gotta figure out how to reattach the squirrel cage to the hub when i put the whole thing back together.

Thanks again

Chooglin

Glad it gave up for you, Chooglin.
I had my fan and motor removed from the housing so the job was in my lap.
I bought a Harbor Freight Rivet set for my door wing window seal installation for pretty cheap. There were several rivet sizes.
I don't recall how small the rivets were in the set, but I'd be willing to bet you could rivet the cage back to the hub... else you could used some small machine screws with lock washers and hex nuts. You may have to drill out the holes a little for the screws.
The fan cages on mine had a balancing weight that clipped onto one of the cage fins. After you get the hub secured again and everything assembled, you might hook the fan up and see if you can find a happy balance spot... then you'd be good to go.
Jerry

I would not even bother reattaching the squirrel cage, when a replacement plastic cage is available and cheap. Mine came apart during restoration too, and my attempts to reattach it were unsuccessful. It did reattach, but then wobbled like an out-of-round wheel until it shook itself apart again. It's not worth it. Just buy a new squirrel cage.

By the way, most auto electric shops have the equipment to separate the squirrel cage fans from the motor shafts, and also sell replacement squirrel cages for 20-something bucks.

Thanks HRD,

Thats just what i ended up doing. When i was at NAPA looking at getting a new 12v motor for the heater the old guy helping me mentioned that they had squirrel cages too. Got a nice stainless one that has a set screw on it that looks like itll work great.

Chooglin