The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay How do you wire an Art Deco heater with a non-OEM 12V blower motor?

I'm working on a '42 Chevy PU with the round style of heater that mounts on the firewall. I'm replacing the blower motor with an aftermarket 12V one since the truck is being converted to 12 volts and the original motor was shot. Also I'm installing one of the plastic covered wire wiring harnesses from Jim Carter. I need to know how to wire the blower motor so the fan turns in the right direction. The new motor has one orange and one black wire coming out of it. I'm planning on using a rheostat type switch like this http://www.oldchevytrucks.com/cart/product.asp?prodid=EL118&i=9764||||| to control the speed of the blower fan.

If there's a wiring diagram out there for doing this it would sure help, otherwise I just need to know which wires off of the harness I use and what they get connected to. Thanks for any help.

all you need to do is touch the wires to a battery and see which way it turns, if wrong for the fan, try it reversed - when you find which wire is ground [probably black], hook that one to a nearby ground and the other to the switch, then the switch to a power source thru an inline fuse .... I should add that some motors are uni-directional, reversing the wires won't make the motor go

Bill

Which wire on the wiring harness is the best one to draw power from? I was thinking maybe the wire on the ignition switch supplying it's power, but was wondering what the "original" way of doing this was. Wasn't this type of heater originally a dealer installed option? The way they would have hooked it up is the way I want to do it.

You want your heater to be on the switched side of the ignition switch. You can use an inline fuse.

Just broke my heater apart tonight. I got the motor apart and shook out some dust/rust but otherwise looks like it may work with some new wires. In case it doesn't work, where did you get your motor from? is it a direct bolt up or need mods? and is there a way to use a 12 volt on a 6 volt motor?

I got it at Carquest. It's a Murray motor, made in Canada. I can get the part # if you need it (if I can find the box :)).