heater switch woes....

[SWINGSAX68]

SO I tried to rig my heater resistor by remaking the little cardboard rectangle tht hold the resistor poles.....but I don't think it worked to well and now it's blowing my fuse again....now I don't want to spend 20 bucks on this little part and i don't need multiple speeds, I just need one speed....high. Is there any way to cut and splice wires to just have one setting work off of the switch. Or could I rig it somehow so the fan just blows full blast all the time with the switch on......Do I really need to have the resistor???? Cause I always just had my fan on high anyways???? Thanks guys!!!

[Edmond]

I guess you should use a relay in this case.
Switch the relay on with the heater switch, and put an inline fuse in the power wire to the relay. But I thought that the 'High' position was already going throught a relay, or is this only with the A/C models?


Cya,
Edmond

[mtdave2]

well, it might not be the best answer, but if it were me and i didnt mind jimyrigin my truck. id bypass all that stuff and just wire 12 volts to the swtich, then connect a wire to just one of the other spades on the switch. then run it to directly to the fan motor. an inline fuze would be a good idea too..

[Edmond]

mtdave2 Will the higher current not be to much for the heater switch in this case? Thus making the relay a better choice?

Cya,
Edmond

[mrein3]

When converting my non-AC truck to AC I used all factory wiring that I bought off this message board. When I applied power for the first time I didn't have a hi-speed fan. My fan went low-medium-low with the new switch I bought in the low-medium-high speed positions.

Thinking back to before I changed everything out the old one did the same thing. low-medium-low.

Since I still had the glove box insert still out it was easy to test things.

Out of the resistor block you get 3 volts for low and 6 volts for medium. The high speed wire gets a straight 12 volts out of the fan switch, not going through the resistor block. I don't know how or why but the 12 volts from the switch in the high position, went into the connetor down stream from the resistors and came out as 3. I'm guessing there was some closed wiring path through that resistor block.

To correct the problem I used the same type of relay I used for my headlights and took the 12v, low amperage signal from the switch and made it the control for the high speed fan. I then took 12 volts through 10 gauge wire out of the distribution hub next to the battery, passed it through a 20 amp in-line fuse, and used that to feed the fan through the relay.

This wiring is similar to the stock wiring diagram. There is supposed to be a relay under the dash somewhere with current coming from the cigarette lighter or some other high current wire.

The only draw back to my wiring setup is if you have the fan on high and shut off the truck the relay keeps itself energized which keeps the fan on high. Simply moving the fan switch off the high speed position turns it off.

If I was you I'd pick the high speed wire off the switch and use that to control an aftermarket relay. Some day you'll want to pop for the resistor block and if you don't hack it up too bad it will be easy to switch back.