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I just realized that the old and new blower housings have very different shapes. I think I can rotate the new one about 180 degrees and get close to the old hole position. Hopefully there are no obstructions at the evaporator housing. I appreciate any insights you might have.
I ordered the later generation fan/blower (GM ACDelco 15-80182).
Vent Hold Location is Different - The vent hole for the blower motor is on the opposite side from the OEM 1968 blower in my car. (See picture below. New motor on left with pencil protruding from vent; old motor on right with original tube.) I cannot find a way to reorient the motor in the housing. Has anyone hit this? Did you route a pipe around the housing? If so, what did you use?
Shape of Housing Different, Template Generally Larger - I also printed the scale drawing from the other site with link above. It is laying on top of the old motor (on the right). One can see the template is more pointed at the bottom (to fit the new blower on the left); I will enlarge the template to provide coverage for these rounded areas from the old blower in case there is potential air leak. Also, the template in general is a little larger than the new blower. I don't know if that is a design difference in the blower I'm using or some other accommodation. After I have it together I will reduce the spacer to fit using a belt sander.
Jeff
I ended up using the vent tube from a C4 as well and got it to fit.
I do think I had to rotate the plastic piece that screws to the evaporator housing to get it to fit just right.
When I did the blower upgrade on my 77 and since I had the the whole box out. I decided to kill to birds with one stone. Replace the evaporator with a more modern one from a 79 and up therefore eliminating the VIR and instead of a spacer I cut and extended the housing to accommodate the C4 fan and cage assy. Just a few pics so you can get an idea.
Extended the blower housing with epoxy resin and boa.
Made the inner housing smooth for better air flow.
With new seals a a more layer model evaporator I then Primed the whole thing with epoxy primer and then two coats of low gloss single stage urethane.
When I did the blower upgrade on my 77 and since I had the the whole box out. I decided to kill to birds with one stone. Replace the evaporator with a more modern one from a 79 and up therefore eliminating the VIR and instead of a spacer I cut and extended the housing to accommodate the C4 fan and cage assy. Just a few pics so you can get an idea.
Extended the blower housing with epoxy resin and boa.
Made the inner housing smooth for better air flow.
With new seals a a more layer model evaporator I then Primed the whole thing with epoxy primer and then two coats of low gloss single stage urethane.
Awesome job!
This is the best way to go IMO, provided you have the time, talent and the evaporator box out of the car.
I was pressed for time so I went the spacer route but this really looks slick.
So finally it is done. I replated/refinished all the fasteners, clamps, and other objects; it took a ton of time. I left the tube from the evaporator in the position it was in originally and instead rotated the new blower and spliced a piece of copper pipe into the C4 connector tube, allowing me to rotate its orientation. The blower seems to move a lot of air but it is not a controlled experiment given the mouse nest covering 74% of the evaporator. I'm happy with it.
Showing the copper pipe I will insert. With copper pipe segment and rotated. Blower and tube installed. Spacer not painted. I used Ribbon Sealer to seal the surfaces. Refinished and replated fasteners. The phosphate was interesting. Evaporust is clearly my favorite product now. Evaporator cleaned, tested, and reinstalled. I installed new foam from Doc Rebuild - different from original - meant to drive air through the evaporator. POA cleaned up well. My 'custom' air filter for my '68. A house filter, removed from the cardboard, cut in half, and wadded into the inbound duct.
I just recently ran into this same spacing issue when doing my body-off resto/mod. I bought the ACDelco 88959521 off rockauto thinking it was a drop-in replacement because it was listed under my car's year('81). When attempting the install, I noticed the new squirrel cage was about 3/4" longer than the one I was replacing. When looking for a solution, I ran across this thread and took the liberty of using the measurements off the diagram from VetteMod and created the 3D printable version. I've uploaded the .stl file for 3 thicknesses of the spacers to thingiverse here: SPACER . It'll fit on a 180mm X 180mm build plate. 3D printed version from VetteMod measurements
Last edited by goldata81; 02-15-2019 at 04:04 PM.
Reason: adding .stl files directly
08-01-2018, 09:37 AM
