The heater in my Jeep suddenly stopped working. I thought it was probably the switch that was broken, so I decided to take it apart.

I couldn’t reach it from the glove box side, so I’ll try removing the meter panel.

I was able to safely remove the switch. That is a 30 year old!

I tried using a electrical contact cleaner to see if it could be fixed, but it didn’t work.

I also checked the fuse, and there was no problem there either.

I thought the switch itself was at the end of its lifespan, so I ordered a new one. The product number is MA392880. Of course, it’s new and shiny!

I replaced the switch, but it still didn’t work, so I decided to check this next.

The heater blower motor.

I would like to remove the motor body, disassemble it and cleaning it.

I had no idea what was causing the problem,

but after further disassembly, it appeared that the motor brushes had reached the end of their service life. I measured the size of the brush and found that it was 6mm x 7mm, so I bought the one that was closest to the size at the hardware store.

HiKOKI (former Hitachi Koki) part #999-041, size is approximately 6.5mm x 7.2mm. It was a little big, so I cut it down with a leutor to match the size.

It fit perfectly, so I reassembled it and attached it to the Jeep.

After connecting the wiring and temporarily assembling it to see if it would work properly, it worked fine! The cause was the motor brushes. It wasn’t a malfunction or anything, it was just a consumable item that needed to be replaced.

Brushless motors are convenient, but I thought it was great to be able to do something like this with an analog fix.