Well, it's that time of year again. It's always at the hottest point when one's A/C fails. It's the brushes on a 3 year old Bosch blower motor fan. I was surprised that it failed this quickly, until a read a post by the late Marshall Booth stating that Bosch's blower motors had softer brushes. So, I need to find some brushes. I could order from George Murphy or that other guy, but I'd have to wait for the brushes to arrive and I'd have to pay $19 at the least. Why do that when I can probably get them on the same day for dollars less? I'm gonna head to some hardware stores tommorow and see what I can find. I've got two questions though.

1. For those of you who have replaced the brushes in your W123 blower motors, do you remember what model brushes you bought and from where you bought them?

2. Can a W126 blower motor work in a pinch? They look nearly identical.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Replaced the brushes in a 116 blower with some I got at Ace Hardware. I had to sand them down to size. Pretty easy to do.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Were the Ace brushes a particular size?

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

They had lots of different sizes. I've got a thread on it somewhere here. My recollection is that I bought the one size that I could sand to fit.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

The ones I got from Kent Bergsma 3 years ago had "H557" on them if that means anything.

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Same brushes, same source, bought 3 months ago, had h557" one them....

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1982 240 D, 308,000 - 321,127 miles (sold)
1982 300 TD,166,500 - 226,000 miles
1998 E 320, 120,000 - 144,000 miles
2005 C 230 K, 26,000 - 77,000 miles (sold)

I haven't ordered any new brushes yet as I'm just getting around to inspecting the brushes that are currently on there. When visually inspecting old brushes, what does one look for in terms of wear?

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

It is too worn out/short to touch the commutators. If it is too short then you need new ones. You can do the followings:

1) use compress air to blow out all the graphite dust
2) use fine sand paper ( 400+ grades ) to clean the commutators and step 1 again
3) Install new ones or get a similar one and file it down to fit with coarse sand paper. I have done it many times.

Good luck.

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Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

In that case, the brushes seem fine. I can see them touching the commutators. Perhaps I just need to blow out the graphite dust. I've already blown some of it out.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

How long are the brushes? If memory serves, the old worn ones I took out were around half the size of the new ones. The new ones were harder to install primarily because there was more material to push in and get the spring to compress.

Sometimes you also just need to clean them.

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Here's my wear photo. Looks like they're worn down to a little bit past half.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

ACE hardware.

They have several sizes.

One size is just a little bigger than the brush holder.

Hand sanded them down to a shape that fits.

I think they were something like 75 cents each.

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

I went to Ace and the people there didn't even know what I was talking about. I said I needed some carbon brushes for an electric motor and they were like "carpet brushes?"

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

I too live in Houston and recently replaced the brushes in my Bosch blower motor. I bought the replacement brushes at the Ace Hardware on Shepherd near I-10. They keep them in boxes behind the counter, so just walk in and tell them what you need and they'll pull out the boxes for you to look through. I found it helpful to take my old brushes in with me to compare the size.

Just like the other members, I had to purchase replacements that were slightly larger than the originals and then sand them down. My Dremel tool worked well for this.

One caveat: this was the first time I'd really messed with electrical brushes and after I had already removed the old ones I sort of wish I hadn't messed with them. I think in retrospect that they had plenty of life left in them, and in any case replacing the brushes didn't fix my problem; I figured out after I had already done the job that my CCU was the problem. I don't know if you've thought about that possibility, but if your brushes still appear to have life left in them (I can't tell from the photo you posted) I would look around for another cause for your lack of AC.

I feel for you though - it's TOO FREAKING HOT here. I just drove nearly 1,000 miles today from Orlando to Houston in my '83 300D (took 16 hours) and was sure glad that my AC is working well and is fully charge with R-12!!

That's the same location I went to and the guy at the front counter was like "huh? brushes?"

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.