jbtvt

I've been having an issue with my blower for several months now. Wouldn't work reliably, and finally quit altogether. Cleaned my switch, replaced the relay (little rusty), cleaned motor/checked brushes, vacuumed my evap coil box out (filthy) and it worked for a while.

When I was pulling the motor apart the fan cone was stuck tight onto the shaft, and when I pounded it off, the armature cracked the plastic housing on the bottom. Tried to replace but the special order motor was wrong, sick of waiting and motor seemed to work fine so put it back as is. Few weeks later blower stopped again.

Switch had been a little sloppy so ordered a new one without checking, put in, and nothing. Checked relay and the large prong on the bottom was blackened, as was the female piece it fit into, little rusty again also. Windshield seal wasn't tight so siliconed it solid all around thinking a water issue, another relay in and worked again. Couple weeks later (now) it melted again, this time the upper large prong!

Only thing I can think of at this point is that the motor is getting too much resistance spinning in the cracked housing at bottom of armature, but the 20amp blower fuse hasn't popped once, and according to Haynes it is before the relay in circuit. Don't understand how I can be melting relays before blowing a fuse and can't afford to keep replacing relays. Any thoughts? Should I spring for a motor and hope I get the right part this time and it's just a problem of resistance? Size down the stock fuse?

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Size the fuse properly. 20A sounds too big.

:wabbit2:

jbtvt

20 amp is the factory fuse. If no one has experienced and solved a similar issue I will try sizing it down to 15a and replacing the relay, if the fuse pops constantly and/or keeps melting relays the blower motor will be next on my list. As I said, drag on the armature from the cracked housing is the only reason I can think of why it would be drawing much current. Still don't understand why the relay is melting before the stock fuse, but wish I solved this before it was 10 degrees with 8 inches of snow on the way.

jbtvt

Ahhh, one mystery solved, just realized I've been looking at the "typical early model" wiring diagram. For some reason on the 2nd gens the relay is before the fuse in circuit! That's an expensive breaker... So much for sizing down the fuse, looks like replacing my cracked housing is the only fix at this point, but if anyone knows another possibility for less $$ it would make my new year.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I hope you don`t live near Bellows Falls I have a friend that has a electrical curse perhaps this is his fault.

Any how are you replacing with a new relay What did you do to repair the burnt female side. Was it the coil side that got hot or the contact pins

From what you are saying if I read it correct it sounds to me if you have a poor (loose) corroded connection where you plug the relay into the plug in the harness. A loose connection will cause lots of heat but not draw enough current to trip the breaker or blow the fuse

Could be the female plug or socket is corroded or loose now causing all your problems

Sgt'sYota

x2/\ and if none of this helps you could always slap an inline fuse in before the relay.

jbtvt

Sweet, I can blame the area electrical fields for my mishaps then! Good thought there, I did clean the females up quickly with emery cloth but should probably go back over them again to be safe, sounds like a manageable hung-over NYD project. Was going to replace, splice in some new spade connectors but have been unable to find the correct size to receive the large relay prongs. Picked up a refurb blower motor for $40 on Rockauto and haven't had any issues yet but better to be safe about it.

sam333

Times three on the high resistance. It doesnt matter if the fuse is before or after the relay as long as it is inbetween the supply and the load it will blow if the current is too high.

jbtvt

Here's the hopefully final rundown, reference for anyone else having the issue or needing to modify a relay.

So I melted another one. Decided to finally do it right, cut the relay receiver plug from the other plugs in the plastic housing for a little more wiggle room, pulled the large red and blue wire females, which had melted, out and snipped the wires.

Old clips were covered in carbon despite my efforts to clean them, and also starting to crack. Too much heating and cooling maybe. Even the dealer didn't have the right size spade clips, and certainly not in copper unfortunately, so bought a box of 3/8 inch (needed 5/16 or so) and crimped them onto some fresh 12 ga wire.

Liquid E tape to insulate. Had to cut the yellow bits off after to get it to fit in.

Cut slots in the relay receiver to slide in the oversize clips - heated a razor blade and cut through the hard plastic like butter. cleaned out loose carbon and sprayed with brake cleaner. Fed the wires already attached to the relay through the plug in, and used crimp connectors to connect new wires to old. Positioned the receiver back in the gang with the others, heated my blade again and used it to "weld" back into position. Works as good as new, and hopefully will not be updating this thread again.