My 2001 Dakota blower motor is fully dead. The resistor has been replaced. I have checked the switch and it appears to be fine. I cannot get any voltage to the plug going into the switch. I do have ground continuity to the plug.

I have checked all the fuses that say A/C and they are good. I am looking for a relay to the fan motor, but I don't see any thing that would make me believe there is a fan motor relay. I am really stumped.

Thanks

 

You checked the 40 amp fuse in the PDC under the hood, #13 I believe?

It's a simple circuit. Power from the battery to the 40 amp fuse to the ignition switch.

From there it goes to the blower motor, then to the blower motor resistor. From there, speed is selected by the selector switch to ground.

There is no relay. The ignition switch has a dedicated set of contacts just for the blower. You can check for power at the ignition switch:
Pin 1, red with light blue tracer should be hot all the time.
Pin 8, dark green, should be hot with the key on - feeds the blower.

At the switch, you should be showing 12 volts on the black with tan tracer wire with the key on.

 

Having never messed with the ignition switch, where do I find the leads you describe?

 

It's on the bottom of the column. You need to remove the covers. Then basically, follow the wires. You should disable the airbag before working on it.

FYI, there are 14 wires on the connector. Pins 1 and 8 are opposite each other.

 

I found the wires you pointed out and probed them with my mult-tester. The red and brown wire has 12v but the green with the switch on had 0v. Now a matter of whether I am handy enough to change the switch out.

 

Not to offend you or anything but you had the connector attached to the switch when measuring, right? If it's disconnected then then you won't get power on the green. You need to poke the test leads into the connector, not always easy or possible.

To verify it is the switch, you could run a jumper from the red/brown to the green wire. The blower should run.

 

I thought of that, actually I left the connector in place and just probed through the wire.

 

I would also assume I could remove the connector and jump between 1 and 8 and see if the blower fan works as an additional check.

 

Yes you sure can.

 

Blower works when jumping 1 and 8. Is there any secret to swapping them? I am going to pick up a Haynes manual today.