Volvo Repair: 1978 volvo 242 heater motor, zak zak, brockville ontario

Question
Hi there Roger...I have a beautiful 1978 Volvo 242 and had pretty much finished all the mech work on it when my heater motor started to smoke and give up the ghost...I carefully dismantled the the casing surrounding the heater motor and extracted it ...after disassembling the motor I found that the motor had stopped spinning and had burnt the brush holders...actually melted the ...number one prob is that the heater motor I have found is not typical in that it has a single blade config and is mounted vertical and not horizontal like any of the one available today with their double spindle/fans ...I managed to get hold of two new brush holders and of course broke a tab on one during installation on the motor ...managed to temp fix the holder and temp wire it up to check it's operation ...once again it had good power but jammed (would not spin till assisted by my own hand)and wouldn't spin...it has the small circuit board type deal not the large wired resistor  ....maybe this is a prob..??...not sure kinda stuck as what to do ....any good ideas ?...hope that I have given you enough details ...Thanks in advance for your advice ...Freezing my a** off in Brockville,Ontario...Zak.

Answer
Zak, Modifications have to be made to the case when you update the old motors.  What you found was a 740 motor.  The 240 motors are available and actually Made in Canada.  They are good motors.  Always replace the resistor when you are doing the motor.  Take the thing back apart and do it right. If you need advice on how to cut the case, let me know.  I use a carbide bit and a air drill.  Roger