Blower issues

[arbskynxnex]

I dove in to fix the anemic airflow on the car today. I found out that a previous owner had mucked about and cracked the blower and A/C evaporator housings. I swapped those out with good ones from my parts car. There was some debris at the evaporator but nothing too bad and I couldn't see or feel anything around the heater core. I know the ones from the parts car produced decent flow since that used to be my driver. I hooked everything up and turned it on and there was no difference in the air flow. I've done this clean out/swap before on other tercels and it always worked even with the A/C system left in place. I did some digging on the site and came to the conclusion that I should pull the cowl and clear it out, there were some needles in there, but nothing blocking the cabin air intake (or at least what I think is the intake). Does anyone have any advice on what to check next? There is almost no airflow on any of the vent settings and the louvers appear to work just fine.

[Petros]

I would check to see the control cables are still connected, if you drop the glove box and the panel under the steering wheel it is an easy inspection. It sounds like the controls are not changing the door position. With the panel off you might also verify that all the ducts are connected properly, and if need be make sure there are no mouse nests in them.

[arbskynxnex]

The cables are all hooked up, I checked that and the doors move and you can hear them too. The face vents are all clear, including the side ones, the heater core is clear. The ducts are properly hooked up too. I'm confused, this has never happened before.

[ARCHINSTL]

As to removing the cowl - you might get some hints from this: https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... hilit=leaf

Don't take offense, but - did you check the air flow of the blower before putting the AC housing back in? This would be to just make sure the blower is putting out "full power." I suppose it is possible (why not?) that accumulated stuff would be blocking the intake under the cowl, but it would sure take a lot. I guess it would be possible for stuff to pile up between the intake and the cowl slots, thus permitting only a bit of air to sneak past.
In any event, it would really be worthwhile to remove the cowl cover and the plastic cover to vac the space - and especially the corners on both sides so water can drain - and also roll up some screening at the bottom, as detailed in the link to prevent meeces from gaining entry.

I removed the AC evaporator completely and was going to fashion some kind of duct to replace it, but lucked out getting a non-AC intermediate duct from a member a few years ago - air flow was dramatically improved! The AC evap was virtually clogged - but it did stop junk from clogging the heater core, which was only (pretty) dirty.
Tom M.

[arbskynxnex]

I figured out the problem today. It turned out the problem was between the wrench and the ground. I had to wire in the blower motor and I can't tell red and black apart under low light. I'd lined everything up using a flashlight, set the light down to get everything in place and the wires shifted places so I ended up wiring the fan motor backwards.

[ARCHINSTL]

Your experience brings up an interesting (if irrelevant) question: Could a totally color-blind electrician gain employment?
Note that this is, surprisingly, not meant as a frivolous question.
Tom M.

[arbskynxnex]

I don't know if you can be totally color blind, but being color blind might keep you from being an electrician. I can't tell blues and purples apart and certain blues and greens look grey, it is hell sometimes working with multi-colored wiring. Sometimes it would get interesting when I worked on appliances. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I mixed up wiring on a large voltage system.