moscow67 Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Hi Eveyone, I am a new reader and hence my first post: I have an '87 GL and a 98 Forrester. I've had the '87 for about 10 years and it has served us very well. For the past several years the blower has worked only on speeds 3 & 4 but we have lived with it. Lately the fan has quit so I looked up solutions here and put in a different resistor (actually spent the money on a new one because my daughter is now going to own the car) and I then found a working switch at a salvage yard and installed it. Nothing is working yet. I have tested the fan - it works and then tested the female (dash end) of the plug-in for the switch with the motor running and there is no power there. Should there be? Any thoughts? Thanks, DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Did I understand you correctly? You've installed a new resistor assembly as well as a switch from the salvage yard. Just for comparison, what did you pay for the resistor assembly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moscow67 Posted July 29, 2004 Author Share Posted July 29, 2004 The resistor was $64 from the dealer with a year's warranty, and the switch was $5 from the salvage yard. The dealer wanted $81 for the switch. DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Sorry for the obtuse questions; I wanted to eliminate the possibility that you got the wrong resistor assembly. At this point I'd try a 2nd switch from the wrecking yard; hopefully it's a free replacement (it should be--most yards "warrantee" their product to at least work). If the 2nd switch yields the same results, I'm a bit mystified. It could be troubleshot with a multimeter but it would certainly take some time. Just to eliminate the possibility, was the resistor assembly intact? All the coils continuous and all of them soldered properly to their posts? There should have been no broken wires. Again a multimeter to do resistance checks might be in order since it's just possible you got a damaged resistor assembly. I'll get back to you later on this as soon as I have a chance to research it a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moscow67 Posted July 29, 2004 Author Share Posted July 29, 2004 I pulled the switch myself in the "yard" and it was in one piece. I checked it with a testing light and it seemed to be working at least enough to light the bulb in a variety of contact combinations. My daughter has been driving this car and she tells me the fan has been unreliable lately - sometimes working and sometimes not - though always with only high speeds. Hence the replacement of both switch and resistor. All the coils look good on the new resistor (it also looks identical to the old one), and as I said, I tested the fan and checked the fuses. It is probably something simple I've overlooked, but I'm stumped. Appreciate the help. DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I pulled the switch myself in the "yard" and it was in one piece. I checked it with a testing light and it seemed to be working at least enough to light the bulb in a variety of contact combinations. My daughter has been driving this car and she tells me the fan has been unreliable lately - sometimes working and sometimes not - though always with only high speeds. Hence the replacement of both switch and resistor. All the coils look good on the new resistor (it also looks identical to the old one), and as I said, I tested the fan and checked the fuses. It is probably something simple I've overlooked, but I'm stumped. Appreciate the help. DB I'm stumped too; normally this is pretty straightforward. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps one of the wire terminals was pushed out while reconnecting the harness. You might pull on each wire--there should be 4 on each side--and see if one comes out or moves a lot within the plastic connector housing (I'd suspect the junkyard switch side). After that, I think you're right about it being something simple but easily overlooked. I wish you were closer because I've had pretty good luck with that area. I don't remember a separate ground wire; I think everything went through the connector. You might search the board a bit; this has been covered a lot and there are some good drawings I've seen that might help troubleshooting. Lastly, have you checked the blower fuse since you installed this; perhaps something shorted during the install and the fuse went. Good luck. You might try Hondasucks; I think he lives near you. Lastly, check the air conditioning circuit; I think the blower gets its power from the ac relay and the relay or a/c fuse might be the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moscow67 Posted July 29, 2004 Author Share Posted July 29, 2004 I think you are right about a relay. I just talked to a local mechanic and he said to check the relay - there are some under the steering column. One of them controls this and must have burned out. I'll try that. Thanks for your help. DB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 I think you are right about a relay. I just talked to a local mechanic and he said to check the relay - there are some under the steering column. One of them controls this and must have burned out. I'll try that. Thanks for your help. DB There are usually four in a row; I know someone else can tell you which one handles the a/c. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 I was wrong about the a/c relay. I have an FSM for an '86 GL wagon (shouldn't be too different from your car). I looked into the wiring diagram for the blower for a 4WD carb'd model--again, shouldn't be too different if yours is a different version or model. Anyway the manual identifies the blower relay as being in series with TWO 15 fuses (#1 and #2) which would BOTH have to be open for your blower to not work. The relay is located "in the instrument cluster"; I think that means under the dash in the area of the instrument cluster; I couldn't find any relay on the inst. cluster itself. Any the blower relay is in a cluster of four relays and the connector to it is white and the four connections have the following wire(s): RY, 2GW, RW, 2LR. I couldn't find the color coding chart but I would think red-yellow, 2 green-white, red-white, and 2 ?-red. The two fuses get their power from fusible link #4 but if that were bad lots of other stuff would not work. 12V power originates from FL4, goes through 2 fuses (in parallel) to the blower relay to the resistor block and then through the blower switch to ground. This sounds like a lot but you seem to have the where-withall to figure this out. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 2LR = Blue/with Red tracer(stripe) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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