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My designated winter 528 made bad noises from the differential, just in time to be too cold in the garage to play do it myself swap and fix.

Necessitating putting rust free 528 into service. Just for fun, the dial around the clock suddenly got immovable. Which I got to move again reasonably well using contact cleaner, but without any of the contacts behind the dial being impressed. I.e., no heater blower fans working.

Is there any mojo ha ha fix possible (fuses look fine), way short of dash disassembly ? Or am I in for below zero driving wearing a mattress until spring ?

And yes, I'll do that before taking it to Otto's Suburban BMW.

Just old grease pretending to be glue in cold weather. It's stronger than the spring pressure behind the contacts.

Will a hair dryer or (very careful) heat gun do anything ? Any kind of spray lube ? I realize the heat idea is yes, no or maybe.

What I don't want to do is spray in some goop that really screws up the electrical contacts, oils the radio, etc.

By the way, does an analog clock swap right in (someday ?) or is the digital cylinder and fan ring a whole different (diameter) animal ?

Looking behind a unit on the bench, the whole system looks like a fairly involved bunch of monkey business to play with.

No, a hot air source blowing on the dash doesn't melt grease behind the dial. But it makes your pants warm in the garage, so that's something.

Only 100 days until you can get out there and do a serious dis-assembly adventure, with lots of colored wires, little teeny nuts and screws, turning and looking, futzing and putzing.

Except then it will be for air conditioning.

You should get some heat even if the blower is not working. Of course, it's the defrost that you need more than anything and that will be a concern.
You mentioned that you freed up the rotation of the switch but does it feels different? Are you not feeling the detents at each speed stop?
I have never heard or experienced that symptom before. A little resistance maybe, usually cured by turning it back and forth a few times, but seized up?
I may have a spare panel somewhere. I'll dig it up and see if I can shed additional light to your problem.

Thank you, your efforts are appreciated. I too have a center unit, from a six series, to see the clock is in a cylinder. The dial on the front that goes around the clock looks to have an inside surface that rotates to connect terminals inside the cylinder.

I expect Mike W.s grease idea is correct, 35 years worth. So far my attempts to soften the grease with silicone contact spray, rust lube (sparingly) gets the dial to move, feel the clicks, without the fan coming on. That, but the dial isn't exactly moving back and forth constantly lovely once lubricated.

Not feeling as if anything is broken inside, just sticks hard, then moves again.

Time to take it all apart in the spring. Yes, the heat does work, yes I may have to drive with a window open if the windscreen gets foggy.

Funny ha ha, or funny stupid.

This is from Peter's writeup on it. I suspect what has happened is those tabs aren't pushed up like in the pic, the grease has them glued down so no contact is being made. I doubt any spray will get in there without melting the plastic but the hair drier might work. I'd be tempted to try it, then leave it on one or two for the rest of the winter without moving it if you do get it to work.





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