Fixed my heater

[scrounger]

My car went its first two years without a heater. This late summer I figured out why. There was a vacuum line leaking from the short line that goes off of the vacuum pump. Like magic all was well with a new piece of tubing.

The other day the fan quit. Ok I have a tiny bit of heat but no fan.Now the weather is turning to ***. The switch was getting power and when I clicked it into high I could hear a relay kick. I started removing  the panel under the glove box and sure enough there was a 5 pin heavy connector with one wire all burnt and cracked. The brown or I figured  the ground as none of the speeds were working.

I soldered on a separate connector for the  ground and all is well.

[ORCoaster]

Glad someone is having success this weekend.  I should have stolen yours. 

[burn_your_money]

There's a reason that ground burnt. Make sure you figure it out before your car catches fire. I'd suspect either a loose connection or possibly a failing blower motor drawing too much current.

[scrounger]

What do you think I should do? As I mentioned,  I cut out the bad connector and soldered on some heavy spade connectors. Being the brown wire it was the ground.  None of the other wires in the same connector had gotten hot.

 To just wrap tape on a hot burning connector isn't my style. I have been an electronics tech since 1970.

[ORCoaster]

Don't poor connections up the resistance of the wire and thus might have made it get loaded and then hot?  Your profession gives you the tools to source this out yes?  Voltage drops on the motor or resistance of low, medium and high? 

[scrounger]

Yep you guys have it. A bad connection can cause a fire.  I didn't need any tools except my eyes and fingers to see and feel that the one bad terminal.  The ground pin of the 5 pin connector was black and charred. Just took a pair of dykes and cut the offender off at each end and put on heavy spade connectors. When I tested it it never got warm.  I thought about just soldering it on but liked to be able to remove it without heat.

I once had an electric water heater that caught into flames when one of the 50 amp cable connectors was loose and it got hot enough to burn the fiber glass insulation. I could see smoking so I turned off the power and opened the access door.

Poof the insulation burst into flames. I gave our fire extinguisher a good workout. I wouldn't have guessed that fiberglass insulation would get hot enough to burn but seeing is believing.

[ORCoaster]

Similar experience with the water heater.  Could smell something hot, burning in the basement.  Sniffed it out to the water heater area.  I found the wires on the upper thermostat were all blackened and crisp.  Somehow they got hot enough to cook the insulation off.  Finally burned off the connector.  Surprised that the breaker never blew.  Found that the whole thermostat was poorly aligned on the tank and was requiring much more heat to cycle on and off.  I wondered why the water was always getting hotter no matter how low I set the adjustment.

[burn_your_money]

What do you think I should do? As I mentioned,  I cut out the bad connector and soldered on some heavy spade connectors. Being the brown wire it was the ground.  None of the other wires in the same connector had gotten hot.

If you think that the problem was initially caused by a loose/poor connection that you've taken care of everything. I was just working on my dad's van and he had a similar situation however the issue in his case was a failing blower motor running up the amperage. I just wanted to make sure that you fixed the problem and not just the symptom. Since this is your area of expertise, I'm sure you've got it taken care of.

[libbydiesel]

Since pulling the mk2 blower motor is a 2 minute affair you might want to lube up the bearings, just to be on the safe side.

[8v-of-fury]

To not start a new thread, and keep blower issues together I will post a question here.

Our 88 only has the high speed work on the fan. I have never really had an mk2 dash apart other than to take the cluster out and fix its speedo gears. Does it do it the same way as the mk1 with the resistor on the blower motor and ALL the amperage running through the switch and its big heavy duty cables?

[burn_your_money]

Our 88 only has the high speed work on the fan. I have never really had an mk2 dash apart other than to take the cluster out and fix its speedo gears. Does it do it the same way as the mk1 with the resistor on the blower motor and ALL the amperage running through the switch and its big heavy duty cables?

Yes. Not sure w/ AC but non the resistor is at the passengers feet.

[TylerDurden]

A/C cars still run the current through the switch. The resistor(s) are in a module behind the glovebox.



Andrew is fast... It takes me about 30min to remove the junk and change a blower.

[R.O.R-2.0]

A/C cars still run the current through the switch. The resistor(s) are in a module behind the glovebox.



Andrew is fast... It takes me about 30min to remove the junk and change a blower.

all mk2s run the current thru the switch..

my non-a/c car has the same type of resistor pack, but its mounted to the fan motor, not to the ducting..

[scrounger]

I need to look more closely at my mk2. I swear I saw only two wires come out of the motor. Makes me presume that the relay is external to the motor. I also heard the relay (on the fuse panel) click when I put it into high. I buttoned the cover up on mine back up once I fixed it. Never really inspected the circuit once I had done the basic repair.

I looked at bentleys and they showed only 3 speeds where mine has 4. I would be just as happy with off and 3 speeds.

As a side note the comment about lubricating the bushings and current draw is valid. Today as I was warming up the car the fan started to squeal.

[TylerDurden]

Yeah, the motor itself only has two wires: you can see them in the above pic as the red/black and brown wires emerging from the bundle and heading out of the bottom of the pic.

Every Mk2 I have has speeds 1,2,3,4; but to turn the fan off, the airflow direction selector (dash, feet, defrost, etc) is moved to the far left. (All have A/C.)