Wet Heater Fan Motor

[Brett C]

I've had my 73 Spider for a bit over a year now. I still feel very much the newbie Alfa owner, but I'm learning all the time –  I hope the following maybe of use to others:

Changing all the old coolant hoses seemed like a prudent thing to do, however I started to doubt my wisdom when liquid started dribbling out of the bottom of the heater after I refilled the system – Bugger!

With the heater out it was obvious that pulling the old hose off the outlet had been the last gasp for the soldered pipe joint. The local Radiator repair shop soon had the core cleaned out and repaired including a fixing a loose stud for the tap. But the saturated fan motor was still dead after drying for a week. The manual and parts list don't give much detail on the fan motor but it is held in the heater box by a couple rubber blocks and just wiggles out. The motor itself can be disassembled with the removal of two spring clips. The images below show the details. I flushed out all the parts with contact cleaner, cleaned up the commutator with some wet and dry on the drill press, lubricated the bearings and the reassembled motor ran fine!