Missing AC Blower motor cooler nipple

[michaelbsc]

I just replaced the blower motor/fan in my '95 SSE. (Thanks to others for posting help that made it easier I would have made it!)

Anyway, browsing the search results I find that the "hole" I have in my fan motor and the other "hole" in my firewall are actually supposed to have a hose for cooling air that goes to the motor windings.

Well, this is completely missing, no doubt having gotten brittle and falling on the road somewhere between SC and CA. Or maybe it got lost by the guy who owned the car before me.

Regardless, it wasn't there on the fan I just replaced, and since I didn't know about it until after I'd put it all back together it's still missing.

(The guy at the parts store couldn't explain the "hole" to me either!)

So my question is how much do I compromise the motor windings and bearings by leaving this cooling line off? Some? A lot? Don't worry about it?

The car has 285K, so I'm not getting a lot of support from the wife to keep it running. If the will probably be OK for a couple of years I'll probably forget it. But if it's likely to fail again in a few months I want to prevent that.

Advice?

Thanks,
Michael

[sandrock]

IIRC, when I replaced my fan, the ventilation hose connected to the rubber housing the fan sits in, and mine went south as well.

What did I do? You know those coolant elbows the 3800 Series II have that tend to break? I had an extra one lying around and cut it down to fit. Been working fine for me.

Leaving it off...hmmm....as far as ventilation goes, it'll be fine. But it will attract dirt and bugs with it being an open hole. As a last resort, I'd stick something like a lawnmower filter sponge cut to size so that way it can ventilate some and keep the debris out of the fan.

[Pontiac1]

You could get one at a junkyard pretty easily also.