cooling fan motor

jmc649

Registered User
the cooling fan motor on my 1990 sc just burned up and i bought a replacement at autozone (VDO PM254). The instructions state its a singlre speed motor not a dual speed, but shows it as a direct replacement, has anyone used one of these single sppeed motors and if so any concerns

thanks
Jim
 
You will need to the 2 speed. The radiator in our cars are too small to start with. Either the motor will come on too late or won't spin fast enough once the engine warms up.

88-89 Taurus/Sable
88-90 Continental

Those motors will work. Sometimes it's easer to find parts for our cars using other models.

Personally, I would just go purchase a Taurus fan from an junk yard and install that.
 
Yeah, definitely don't want to use a single speed, unless you know how to rewire it to fit the IRCM functions.

I would also just hit the junkyard. If you can find a new one though, go for it. :cool:
 
That motor is listed as a 2speed motor most places. If it has 3 wires coming out of it, then it's probably 2 speed motor. You can easily verify by testing it on your car's battery. If you do this be sure to hang on to it tightly because it will have a lot of torque and will try to take off when you put power to it!

The bigger question is if it actually fits your fan blade. Ford updated their design in 91-92 and as a result the fan blade itself may or may not fit. Most books do not recognize this running change that Ford made.

I've never tried to fit a Taurus fan so I can't comment on that, but sometimes if you buy a used fan the blade might be rusted onto the motor shaft and so you might not be able to remove it from the Taurus shroud and install it on your SC shroud.

If worse comes to worse, I have a pile of SC fan/shroud assemblies available. Shipping is kind of expensive though.
 
That motor is listed as a 2speed motor most places. If it has 3 wires coming out of it, then it's probably 2 speed motor. You can easily verify by testing it on your car's battery. If you do this be sure to hang on to it tightly because it will have a lot of torque and will try to take off when you put power to it!

The bigger question is if it actually fits your fan blade. Ford updated their design in 91-92 and as a result the fan blade itself may or may not fit. Most books do not recognize this running change that Ford made.

I've never tried to fit a Taurus fan so I can't comment on that, but sometimes if you buy a used fan the blade might be rusted onto the motor shaft and so you might not be able to remove it from the Taurus shroud and install it on your SC shroud.

If worse comes to worse, I have a pile of SC fan/shroud assemblies available. Shipping is kind of expensive though.

The dual speed 92-95 Taurus fan fits your existing shroud, kind of. It leaves about a 1/2" gap between the fan blades and the Thunderbird shroud. It is not as efficient for that reason, but it still works pretty well. You will need to swap the blades along with the motor because, as Dave alluded, the exact shape of the motor shaft changed along the way.

I know this because I just recently swapped a Taurus fan into my car's shroud. I went this route because I could find a Taurus fan with 70k miles for $50 in a local junkyard. The aftermarket single-speed fan (Four Seasons part # 35171) was $67 and required cutting the harness. I am pretty sure there is a 2-speed motor available from Four Seasons for another Ford application, which could be adapted. But that motor costs a lot more ($150+?) and also requires cutting the harness.

It should be noted that the motors Ford installed in cars from this era are very good. They move much more air than a typical aftermarket replacement. They have the 2-speed feature that works better and extends fan life.

My fan lasted almost to 200k miles, and even then, the high speed still worked. But the front bearing was really shot. It made a growling noise in operation and had obvious play. I opened up the motor and saw that the rear bushing is still in great shape. I bought a new bearing for the front and will replace it when I have time. It is a little bit involved to replace the bearing, but I think it will give good results. The low-speed brushes were a little worn out, but the high-speed ones are still pretty good. The commutators (yes, 2) are in almost pristine shape. I think this motor can last another 100k miles once I get it back together. Once it is back in the car, then I plan to sell the Taurus fan. I can probably get all my money back for it.

Ultimately, I would not throw out any fan motors for this car unless you really are sick of looking at them, because they can be fixed to just as good as new for a minimal cost.
 
Couldn't we just send out our fan motors to a place that rebuild electric motors? I would imagine that these can be rebuilt with new bearings, brushes, etc. I doubt the windings go bad. If I can get someone's old fan motor that they do not care about, I can do some digging around here locally. I have an electric motor rebuilding service a few miles from my house. I can always let them take a look at it and see what they say. It can't be much more different than rebuilding an alternator or starter, right?

I called a place local to me and tey said tat it depends on the design. Some are sealed and can't be opened. Some are crimped together but they can typically be uncrimped and rebuilt. The only way to know would be for me to drop one off to have them take a look at it. If someone has a fan motor that dies I can drop it off and have them take a look for us.

http://www.chelmsfordautoelectric.com/contact.nxg
 
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If you can catch the failure in time you may be able to. Many of the SC fan motor failures include some sort of fire or melt down of things leaving the motor in a state where rebuilding would not be cost effective.
 
If you can catch the failure in time you may be able to. Many of the SC fan motor failures include some sort of fire or melt down of things leaving the motor in a state where rebuilding would not be cost effective.

OK got it. Sounds like the windings melt down when they totally crap out then. It may still be a viable alternative for motors that haven't melted down.
 
OK got it. Sounds like the windings melt down when they totally crap out then. It may still be a viable alternative for motors that haven't melted down.

I think it is totally viable. Like I said above, I am more than half-way through it. And I am not a professional rebuilder, I am just "a dude" who has tinkered with a few motors on the side. I replaced the brushes and seals in the Teves Mark II ABS pump motor, too, and that is working great. They are very simple in construction.
 
If someone can get me a motor that is on its' way out I can take it to the shop I referrenced above. Worst case is they can't rebuild it and I send it back the owner.
 
When mine crapped out about 5 months ago, I just walked into the local pep boys and they had the 2 speed on the shelf.....this of course after wasting my time at Autozone who only had the single speed.
 
cooling fan

Thanks for the information, I am going to try to get it back together this weekend
 
It is a three wire two speed, exact replacement electric fan motor.

That is good to know. I just looked at it on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Four-Seasons-35170-Radiator-Motor/dp/B000CL7JZQ) and it appears to have the correct shaft configuration for the earlier cars. If true, that means you can use your original fan blade. And the price on Amazon is really good - less than $100.

It looks like you will need to swap the harness connector, however. It appears to match this, which was used on some late 1990s Fords.
http://www.rjminjectiontech.com/collections/pigtails-connectors/products/fan-pigtail

So you could either buy the new connector for the harness or cut the plug off the old motor.
 
So you could either buy the new connector for the harness or cut the plug off the old motor.

If the plug is in good shape, you could do both - and wire the old plug to the new connector as an adapter, thereby avoiding modifying either one.

RwP
 
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