PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Replacing the brushes on a 116 blower motor

kerry · #9 02-11-2009, 01:07 PM

Seating the back plate was just a matter of getting the stiff wire in the right location.
I first fixed the bakelite panel that holds the brushes in place with 5 minute epoxy. Once that had dried, I fixed the metal back plate in place with 5 minute epoxy. It seems to function fine.

It's worth noting that I did not completely disassemble the motor and remove the armature. I didn't because that would require removing the squirrel cage from the shaft and another member reported the cage broke when he tried to remove it. It may be worth disassembling the motor completely to clean the inside and lubricate the bearings. There was a lot of dirt inside my motor. I did use a vacuum cleaner to try to suck everything out from the back side but even so, when I had it reassembled and turned it over, still more dirt fell out the front end. When the back was off I should have held it upside down and tapped it on a hard surface to get more dirt to the back of the motor and out.
I'm just going to put the motor on the shelf and hold it as a spare since I already installed a junkyard motor in its place so I won't have any long term information on the durability of my brush replacement.

But if you're facing a non-functioning 116 blower, can't find a junkyard replacement and don't want to spend $1150 on a new one, a couple of hours of work should have yours up and running again if the problem is worn brushes. I believe that what happens is that as the brushes wear down, the wire at the back of the brush will ultimately lodge at the front edge of the slot in which it slides and the spring will no longer be able to push the brush firmly in place.