How does the recirculation motor work?

[navaidstech1]

Hi all....My wife has been complaining about her Vibe making clicking noises coming from the cabin filter area.I have traced the problem to the recirculation motor. After fighting with it for over an hour trying to remove it, I finally got it out, took it apart and found that the main gear is stripped. I think I can fix it by simply rotating it 180 degrees (since only one half of it is being used), however I'm trying to understand how this motor works.I realize that it turns one way or the other depending on the position of the RECIRC button, which in turn reverses the polarity of the voltage going to the motor. But I don't see any limit switches to make the motor stop from spinning once it gets to the end of damper travel! So I'm thinking... is there some sort of a limit switch built into the damper part of the whole thing?I can't imagine the motor being energized all the time, or it would be going through gears like a rat through cheese!Unfortunately Haynes still has not come up with a repair manual or schematics so I'm at your mercy here...thanksAlex

[joatmon]

sounds like you have it figured right. The search tool here could have saved you a bunch of troubleshooting time.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... d?id=29575

[navaidstech1]

UPDATE!Right after I posted the above, I went at it once again and got it fixed. The main gear that rotates the damper was stripped so I simply rotated it 180 degrees and it is working fine once again. If it strips again, I will have to get a new motor assembly.As far as the limit switches... there aren't any. I think what's happening is that the motor is driven by current limiters, and as soon as they notice any sort of resistance from the motor (closed dampers, more load on motor thus more current drawn), they will start limiting the voltage until the motor stops. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. joatmon, thanks for the links. I did a search before but couldn't find anything on it (most likely finger problem here....I mean, most definitely finger problem here)Anyhoo, I hope this little trick will save some of you a bundle of money. I imagine those motors can get pretty pricey at the dealer.Alex