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I finally got some cool weather to work on it. I got the fan out today.
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This is the fan cover. Note the groove worn into the cover by the broken fan.
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While the old fan came out, I can't get the new one in. [bigsad]
When I'm finished I'll do a write up on it.
I got the new fan in, turned it on, and got the same noise.
When I checked the fan, I'd broken the end ring when getting it in.
I'm really annoyed with myself. I'm not sure if it is possible to repair the break. I assume the fan is nylon.
I wonder if I got a staple hot enough to push through the ring and then folded the ends over to hold it would work. I doubt if any glue would work. I don't want to unbalance it, either.
Cross your fingers and hold your breath.
I've tried a repair. I superglued it (I don't expect that to hold) then slit a short piece of thin-walled aluminium tubing, filled it with epoxy and slit over the broken section. I then crimped it down with pliers.
Attachment 188378
I'll see tomorrow if it works. It might need a piece 180 degrees away to balance it.
What was happening is that, as the fan speed came up toward maximum, the fan would noticeably expand around the break and foul the upper case.
What about fabricating a wire clip to fit around the adjacent fins, possibly tying the ends together? It would still need to be glued to keep it rigid on the fins so that it didn't cut through the plastic.
Yes, that might work.
How about running a band of thin tie wire around outer surface of fan ring & melt it into ring with heat gun! That shouldn’t throw balance out & would help prevent breaking again!
I'm curious to know how this tale ended?
I should have written the job up.
I won't go too much into the basic stuff like removing the side vents, dash top, and radio/GPS head unit. That's covered in RAVE.
NOTE THAT THIS APPLIES TO EARLY L322s. Later L322s have a different dash top and sub-structure making access (apparently) easier.
Removing the vents requires lifting locking projections then levering the vent out. This is the centre vent.
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Once that is out, this is what you'll see. Note the air ducts.
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Remove the centre screw. It can't be accessed with a screwdriver. I used this ratchet.
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With the dashtop removed (done earlier), you'll see this:
Attachment 191393
The white outline is my cutting guide. I tried cutting with a Dremel but it didn't work very well so I used my soldering iron. That worked quite well.
Attachment 191394
To be continued.
