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Blower Motor Wiring, 1937 LaSalle

Started by buicksplus, February 11, 2013, 01:33:30 AM

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buicksplus

My 37 LaSalle has a blower motor with four wires.  From looking at the fans attached to the motor, it appears that it should run one direction for defrost, the other for heat.  But I don't know for sure.

If I put 6V on one pair of wires the motor runs in one direction.  The other pair acts like a short circuit and the motor does nothing. 

Anyone know how these motors should be hooked up?  I also have a heat/def switch that clips onto the dash with four wiring lugs on it.  There is no info I can find about this in my shop manual.

Bill.   
Bill Sullivan CLC# 12700

Warren Rauch #4286

 I checked the owner manual to see if the heater and defroster had to indeed be run separately ( in opposite directions). The owner manual only says you may want a heater for winter use.
  Heaters in the 1930's were different almost yearly. I found a nice article on the new 1938 heater. It tells all the improvements over 1937.The new 38 used a 6 blade fan ( 4blade in 37) . The new heater uses a cage type ( both fans on same shaft) fan for the defroster. In 37 the central part of the core did very little to provide any heating ,but the cage fan now uses that area to do most of the defrosting. Overall a 35% increase in heat. They were therefore making packages for this heater to be installed in most 1937 and earlier cars.
  This may help you figure out which heater you have.I can't believe they would make you choose between heater and defroster, so the motor should only turn one way. The extra wires are more likely multiple speeds (note from 1936 first notch is high,then slower). Warren

Brad Ipsen CLC #737

The attached wiring diagram my help.  This heater switch started in 39.  The heater function rotated the fan in one direction and the defrost function operated the fan in the other direction.  With each function you have two speeds.
Brad Ipsen
1940 Cadillac 60S
1938 Cadillac 9039
1940 Cadillac 6267
1940 LaSalle 5227
1949 Cadillac 6237X
1940 Cadillac 60S Limo

John Washburn CLC 1067 Sadly deceased.

Bill,

The one I have in my 37 LaSalle has four wires. Heater turns the fan one way, defroster they other. The switch lights when turned on.

Is this what you have is so can check to see how I wired it. Don't remember of the top of my head.

jw
John Washburn
CLC #1067
1937 LaSalle Coupe
1938 6519F Series Imperial Sedan
1949 62 Series 4 Door
1949 60 Special Fleetwood
1953 Coupe DeVille
1956 Coupe DeVille
1992 Eldorado Touring Coupe America Cup Series

buicksplus

Thanks for the info.  I finally was able to get my unit working properly by lots of trial and error and reverse engineering my heat/defrost switch -- which looks exactly like the diagram given by Brad:

My color codes are not readable, all the color is gone from the wires.  But the four leads are:

1:  Ground

2: Defrost hot

3: Heater hot

4:  Field

What the switch does in defrost mode Hi is apply 6V to Defrost hot and connect Field to Heater hot. 

In Heater mode Hi, it applies 6V to Heater hot and connects Field to Defrost hot.  This reverses the direction of the fan from defrost mode.

In each mode there is a slow speed -- obtained by adding resistance to the field connection.

It seems to work well wired this way.  There is also a cute instrument bulb in the center of the switch that lights up the unit is on in either mode.

Thanks for your help!  This heater is an accessory that does not rate any sort of writeup in the shop manual.

Bill.
Bill Sullivan CLC# 12700

joeceretti

Thanks to everyone for this post. After resoldering the wires on the commutator. They were mostly broken at the solder points.

My heater works! It doesn't light up though. Not sure why, the bulb is good.

Anyone know where to get brushes for these little motors?

joeceretti

I am sure there is a problem with my switch. It worked only in slow speed and not in high speed. The bulb wouldn't light. I bypassed the switch and the motor runs full speed no problem. I've presently wired it with a toggle switch wired up to high speed/heat mode. Now, to find a switch.