Motorhome Maintenance With Mikee

Winnebago had a really good idea. Since you have all that hot engine coolant just circulating around in the engine compartment with nothing to do but cool the engine - why not put it to work? What could we do with it?

1. We can use it to heat up the air coming through the vents in the dash - just like in a car.
2. We can use it to heat up the water in the coach hot water heater so the fresh water will be nice and hot when the occupants stop for the day.
3. We can use it to heat the entire coach area through the floor ducts and registers when driving in really cold weather since the dash heater only heats the very front.

The folks at Winnebago decided to do all three!

See - these folks were really thinking! Yup - they were thinking right up to the point when they were deciding where to place the heat exchanger/blower assembly for that coach heater. Since they already had routed the engine coolant through the coach hot water heater - why not place the heater/blower assembly right behind the hot water heater and in a compartment that only a midget or a medium sized contortionist can maneuver? Of course access to the heater/blower is no problem for them. They simply remove the hot water heater to gain access since that adds at least 4 hours to the job and they get paid about $65 or more per hour when they do the work.

The other place where somebody dropped the ball was in the design of the blower motor itself. It seems they used a steel motor rotor attached to a plastic blower wheel and apparently the plastic part tends to move on the steel shaft until it hits the blower frame. The first thing you tend to notice as this failure starts to happen is the increase in noise level. Right about the time you start to get used to the noisy blower - it locks up and blows its supply fuse.

So that explains why some foolish Winne owner would try and save a few hundred dollars and repair this offending convenience himself.

Actually - if you are a wee bit handy with a few tools - and if someone is willing to tell you a few secrets - you can accomplish this job within a few hours.

Secret #1 - Removing the coolant hoses - Although you can access the coolant hose connections from within the passenger side wheel well, this only works well for small folks. The best way is to remove the "dog house" engine cover inside the coach and reach down to remove the hose clamps/hoses. In fact - I recommend cutting the hoses right at the heater core. The hoses are plenty long enough to reconnect later and getting those hoses off those connections after a few hundred heat cycles can be difficult.

Secret #2 - Now that you have the heater core hoses removed you're ready to remove the electrical connector to the blower. Unfortunately you can't get to it in the water heater compartment without removing the water heater and the access hole from the engine side is too small for it to come out that way. No problem - simply cut the three wires about 6-8 inches from the access hole on the engine side - you can splice them back together with some crimp connectors when you put it back together later. But one word of caution here - there are two yellow wires - be sure to mark one on both sides of the cut or you may end up getting a high speed fan in the low speed switch position - and vice versa! 

OK - hoses are cut off - wires are cut - now for the fun part. There are three sheet metal screws holding the heater/blower assembly in place to the duct work. Two are fairly easy to access - the third is best removed by a contortionist with a small electric screwdriver. Once that third screw is out YOU'RE almost done with the hard part. Now you simply have to wiggle the assembly out from behind the hot water heater and take it to a nice workbench where you will work on it right after having at least one cold adult beverage!

Now that your attitude has been adjusted it's time to fix the blower. First step - remove the 1,000 or so screws holding the sheetmetal assembly together. Now that you magically have the blower in your hand - you will notice that the blower wheel will not rotate as it should. Now go get a small hammer. Yup - this is the highly technical part ... now take the blower and hold it with the wire side in the palm of your hand and locate the protruding metal shaft that is now pointing up. Applying a sufficient force - rap the shaft until it moves downward about 1/4." You will now notice that the blower wheel turns freely. At this point you can try and figure out a way to keep the shaft from moving within the plastic bushing - or you can do as I did - and simply put it back together - hoping for a few more years of operation before someone has to do this job again!

Now all you have to do is reverse all the steps previously performed and the blower will work just fine (until it fails again).

See - like I said - no problem - piece of cake!

Now I need to plan a trip in some really cold weather to enjoy my newly repaired coach heater. Right after a few more cold adult beverages.