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I've got a noise that sounds like it's coming from around the firewall on the passenger side. I can't tell which side of the firewall, yet.
It almost sounds like a baseball card on a bicycle spoke. It isn't all the time, but it's getting close to 50/50 now. It will never make the noise when I first start the car, but when I hit a bump, it may or may not start. It rarely stops until I turn off the car, but sometimes I'll hit another bump and it will stop. Sometimes, but rarely.
When it is making the noise and I turn off the car I can hear it wind down, so it's definitely something spinning.
Is this going to be the blower motor? If so, what kind of mess am I looking at getting myself into?
Yep, sounds like the heater / AC blower motor allright. Could be you have accumulated leaves and a bunch of other debri in the area occupied by the squirral cage. Removal on my '81 wasn't that bad. You've got to remove the coolant exapansion tank by accessing the bolts in the RF wheel well, then with the expansion tank removed, you should be able to use a wrench and 1/4" drive socket set to remove the blower motor. Once removed you can see and feel down in the hole in the heater box for the debri. I used a vacuum and air compressor to clean mine out prior to installation of the new blower motor.