A blower wheel, often referred to as a squirrel cage or hamster wheel, attaches to the front of the blower motor in your vehicle. When you turn on the power to the blower motor by selecting a circulation setting, it begins spinning the blower wheel. While the blower's motor might fail over time, the blower wheel often remains intact.
Raise and properly support the hood on your vehicle. Locate and disconnect the negative cable's terminal from your battery with a socket wrench. Position the metal terminal at the end of the cable away from its connecting point on the battery.
Determine where your blower motor mounts if you don’t already know. The blower motor in just about every vehicle mounts in one of two places. In full-size vehicles and trucks, the blower motor typically mounts within the engine compartment on the passenger's side at the firewall. In smaller cars, the blower motor usually mounts in the interior beneath the dashboard on the passenger's side. The blower motor in both cases looks the same and it is wired into the vehicle in the same manner.
Identify your vehicle's blower motor. You will not be able to see the blower wheel until you remove the entire blower motor but you will be able to see the rounded, bottom of the blower motor.
Unplug the wiring harness connected to the blower motor. Remove the bolts around the circular base of the blower motor with a socket wrench. Pull the blower motor outward and away from its housing.
Set the blower motor down on a flat working surface with the wheel facing upward. Look down into the center of the blower wheel at its mounting shaft-bar. At the base of the shaft-bar you should see a small metal clip that from the side looks like the letter "R."
Insert both tips of a pair of needle-nosed pliers into the opening on the metal clip. Open the pliers slightly to expand the clip, then slide it off the shaft-bar.
Pull the blower wheel vertically off the blower motor's shaft-bar. Install the blower wheel onto your new blower motor by reversing this entire process.
