Bought my first Mk2, has been in one family for 35 years. Well kept, but apparently many strange electrical solutions... The issue here is the fan. Does that look original to you? It doesn't run at all. There's current to it when switch is up and ignition on, but no movement. It could be that it's just stuck, I've found other issues that fix themselves when exercised. The manual says remove whole heater box, but it looks like I can just remove the motor? Or can I just remove the rear part of the motor? Any advice?

 

Your heater box and fan/motor doesn't look right to me at all. Somebody seems to have gone in and done some mods to it. Here's one in a UK 3.8 although they're the same on all Mark 2s

 

You are correct Fraser. Someone's had their fingers in there. That's not OE. Certainly the fan motor & fan cover plate aren't.

 

It was (and still is) common to replace the fan and/or motor with larger ones, quite often from BL/BMC.

 

On the other side of the pond the Pontiac Fiero unit seemed a common replacement due to the number of broken cars lying around. But they were only built for about 5 years & a failure. Pretty car.

 

No Quarter; the way it is now, it looks like you can simply unscrew the face plate the motor is mounted on.
This will enable you to remove the motor and squirrel cage fan in one unit.

Normally the whole heater box would have to be removed so the fan can be removed first to enable the removal of the motor.
The fan on the original design is held in place with a collet fitting, either 1/2 inch or 7/16 wrench for it's nut.

I would just repair that motor, the original was too slow and did not move enough air, that looks more substantial.
If you can't repair it, there oodles of motors that can be adapted to work.

 

Solved, took it out, saw something I haven't seen before. The coals fall out of their holders if motor is spun the wrong way, and previous owner had switched the wires. So a simple fix, putting coals in place, reversing wires. Thanks

 

The coals ?
What do you mean by "coals" ?

 

I assume he means "brushes", which are made of carbon, (coal !).

 

Exactly

 

It happens in translation into English as many languages use the same word for coal and carbon. So long as it doesn't start a fire under the bonnet, I guess it's OK?​​​​​

 

I'm familiar with many British and Australian terms, but that's a first for me.
Thanks for clearing that up.