Replacing a RHD blower motor

Weird, I've never seen that happen with a squirrel-cage blower. That'll generally always draw the air in along the shaft axis and fling it to the outlet around the blade circumference. Reverse the rotation and it still does that, only less effectively because the blades and outlet housing are shaped to work best in the intended direction.



I learned that after working on the heater blower once in my sweetie's '65 Galaxie 500. I had the end caps off the motor to clean and relube the bearings and clean up the commutator and brushes. It was held together by two through-bolts, which meant the end caps would fit two different ways. I didn't think about it at the time, but if the end cap that carries the brushes gets reinstalled 180° turned, that reverses the motor rotation.

We tested it and it blew air and we thought "great!" and put it all back together, but on the first chilly day we noticed the defog performance sucked. Even on high, it just wasn't moving enough air. Put the end cap back on the other way and it blew like a hurricane.

I think that one was a forward-curve design, too. Such blowers can be designed with forward, backward, or straight blades and they all work, and they all blow the same way, in along axis, out to the side. But whichever way it was designed, it won't blow as effectively, spinning the other way.



To me, the backward curve always looks more convincing than forward curve, so when that Galaxie blower was spinning the wrong way, it didn't really look wrong to me. But it sure did blow better, once it was spinning they way they intended.

 

For future readers: for right-hand drive, second-generation Prius cars, the blower with fan motor sub-assembly has Toyota part number 87103-47010. Since this part is also used on cars built for sale in Japan, I’d imagine it would be available from sellers, such as IMPEX JAPAN, JP-CARPARTS.COM, or Amayama Trading, that specialize in exported parts.

(The equivalent part for left-hand drive cars is 87103-47020.)