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Blower motor woes and improvements?


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The "1" and "2" on my fan control haven't worked for awhile. I finally did a little searching and found a great pic that should exactly where the resistor pack was for the motor. I took the pack off and discovered that 2 "resistors" (coils of wire) were broken. After a quick solder job, I got them put back together.

--Sidenote: I had been hearing a sizzle sound (like water dropping on something hot) from behind my glove compartment. I had no clue what it was at the time, but everything (except the 1 and 2 fan control) seemed to be working fine.

Sssooo, after I put the resistor pack back, I noticed some water around the base and some water dropping from the opening in the blower motor housing to the floormat. So, I am thinking that condensation from the blower housing (from cold air) is forming and dripping or running into the resistor pack, causing the Sizzle sizzle sound damaging the coils.

 

Here is what I am thinking, test the coils for resistance, find some REAL resistors of the same rating, take off the coil resistors and solder on the real resistors. Anyone see any problems with this??? I think this should stop damage to resistors because even though the resistor will get hot, hot wires won't be exposed and the surface area of the actual resistor is much less than of a resistive coil.

 

Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

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I think someone else once tried to repair the resistors with their own. As I recall it worked alright for a little while, but his final conclusion is that it'd be easier to get one from a boneyard.

 

I wouldn't think you'd get that much condensation in the blower motor box. I'd check the drains in each corner of the hood. Chances are they're plugged and letting water into the heating system.

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I had the same problem about 100,000 miles ago. I took the resistor pack out, experimented with a couple of solid-state resistors from an electronics supply house, and soldered in the ones that made it run at the right speed. I'm sorry I can't remember the resistance values, because it's been so long ago, but it's still working great.

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I cleaned out the mounting holes for the original resistor wire and bent the end of the solid-state resistor before soldering, so I had a good mechanical connection. That was over 100,000 miles ago.

 

To get close to the resisitance value, I took the length of the resistor wire that was left and measured the resistance, and extrapolated by multiplying by the total length of the wire.

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I had the same thing, it was just easy to go to a bone yard and get one. The reietance values and wattage made for some big resistors, and time vs work was just easier. Also in a bone yard you can tell real fast if they work or not. If they are in one peice odds are they will work. If in doubt take a meter with yuo.

 

 

nipper

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