Replaced Blower Resistor.. No Luck (3 Viewers)

[ModisetteJ]

Hey all, blower started doing the thing that everyone else’s does when the resistor is going out. I lost the low and low-medium setting but still had medium-high and high settings for about a year. Then all of a sudden I started noticing those settings struggling, and finally stopped altogether. So I replaced the resistor with the Denso replacement, but no luck there. Am I looking at needing to replace the motor now? I’ve tried resetting that breaker, but I don’t even know if I did that correctly. Any help appreciated.

 

[OSS]

Probably.
The fan motor is super easy to remove. Remove it and see if it is binding. Betcha there’s all kinds of crud mucking up the works inside it.
Aftermarket fan motors at RockAuto are pretty cheap. They may not last 30 years but they’ll last a while.

Also the fan motor wiring is protected by a circuit breaker in the fuse box. If it pops - motor no workie. It can be reset by poking a paper clip into the little hole on top (little silver canister).

 

[Spike Strip]

Start here: Apply 12v directly to blower and see if it works.

 

[ToyotaMatt]

Start here: Apply 12v directly to blower and see if it works.

how many times Alf have you applied 12V to your blower , to see if it still works ?

 

[ModisetteJ]

Hi all,
So I replaced the motor with the one from Rock Auto- super easy to replaced as @OSS mentioned. I put it all back together, but now my fan speed sounds great/normal, but the air coming out is about 25% at what it should be. Any ideas here? Made sure to get the gasket back on the motor/fan assembly. I did have to create a new harness for the motor, I’m wondering if I got it backwards? That would be hilarious. I’m going to go swap the leads and see if that fixes it. I guess I want to make sure first though, does the blower motor work like that?

 

[OSS]

To rule out high resistance in the blower wiring harness- which will drag down fan speed, run a test pair of 14AWG or 16AWG wires (zip cord) to the battery directly to the blower motor. Be careful to not short those wires on anything! Big sparky!

I rewired my blower with new 10AWG wires all the way back to the battery (through a separate fuse box) and holy cow! The fan turned into a jet engine. Air velocity seemed almost 2X faster on high speed. Huge difference

 

[ModisetteJ]

To rule out high resistance in the blower wiring harness- which will drag down fan speed, run a test pair of 14AWG or 16AWG wires (zip cord) to the battery directly to the blower motor. Be careful to not short those wires on anything! Big sparky!

I rewired my blower with new 10AWG wires all the way back to the battery (through a separate fuse box) and holy cow! The fan turned into a jet engine. Air velocity seemed almost 2X faster on high speed. Huge difference

The speed sounds fine to me. At least, it sounds as loud as it did with the old motor in it before it kicked the bucket. It’s jus the air coming out of the vents is much lower.
Do you know if these motors work in reverse as well? So if I got the leads backwards for whatever reason, would the motor run backwards essentially sucking air instead of blowing air? Or will I cause a bigger problem reversing those leads?

 

[george_tlc]

The old motors will be brushed and so will run backwards if you have +/- flipped.

I can add some humour here...

Years ago I converted my 24V diesel patrol to 12V. Replaced a LOT of stuff (from a 12V donor) including of course the fan motor. On testing, fan made great noise but piss poor air flow. Well... even though the 12V had the same connector as the 24V and I just unplugged/plugged, nissan in their infinite wisdom/stupidity, flipped the +/- from 24V wiring to 12V wiring. Repinned the connector and fan started blowing air just as it should.

So, yeah, check your wiring polarity.

cheers,
george.

 

[Spike Strip]

@ModisetteJ

Don't toss your old blower motor - someone will buy it (me )

As stated, check polarity and also the evap box is known to fill up with crap, particularly if you park near trees. The intake in the cowl can get clogged, too.

Cheers.

 

[ModisetteJ]

UPDATE:

So, I ended up replacing the fan, and it was a slight bit louder, but it worked just as well and so I thought that was the end of that.

Well it's "heating" up here in NW Washington, and I've been running the fan a bit with the A/C, and after commuting home from work (about an hour:fifteen) I noticed my fan started to cut in and out like it was losing connection, then a burning smell, and then some smoke! So I killed the truck and pulled over, and found my fan motor wires looking like this:

This seems to me to be more of an issue with the wires they're using than a user error, so if I can find the retailer who sold me this fan I'm going to reach out to them to try to figure out what gives and see if I can get a new unit. Can't believe though this almost burned down my cruiser (not really, but damn it sure could've).

 

[Spike Strip]

Also investigate why the circuit breaker didn't trip.

 

[ModisetteJ]

Well, looks like RockAuto only warranties these fans for 1 year, and it's been about 2.5 so i'm SOL. I may bust it open and try to rewire it myself with a thicker gauge wire and see if that fixes it.

@Spike Strip Good call, I'll take a look at that this evening.

 

[OSS]

The FJ60 interior blower fan has these specs (I measured).
Amps:

10 amps normally won't over heat the wire insulation

1. 3.3A
2. 5A
3. 7A
4. 10A