Yep, I need some ideas... I recently replaced a passenger side front fender on my 2002 Dakota sport, (3.9 manual 5 speed) and since then, My blower motor no longer works, I've checked all my fuses and grounds that i removed in the process of replacing the fender. All are good. My next step is checking the motor itself, Just haven't felt like standing on my head to do so yet. It gave no warning that it was going to die (i.e. noises, smells, weak strength/speed) So i'm thinking that it is either the switch connection, or the motor is possibly seized from sitting for a while in damp weather. I thought that if it was seized, it would blow a fuse. But all my fuses are fine. Any suggestions/ideas?

 

is the fender painted, and if so, did you clear the paint away from the mounting points for the grounds? have you tried hooking the blower motor up to a seperate battery and try to get it to move by itself? many things could be a source of this problem.

 

Yes the fender is painted and yes I cleaned and checked the ground wiring spots to the fender, I'll try and give the blower motor power now, and see what happens.

 

sounds good, let us know how it turns out.

 

Ok, as if i wasn't really confused before, I REALLY am now... I removed the motor, and sent power to it using a battery charger in the garage, the blades turn, so I'm assuming that the motor is fine. Then, I checked to see if it was getting power, and it is, Even while the switch is off!!! moving the switch makes no difference in the brightness of my 12v test light.... thats all for updates for now, I'm going to go put a meter on it and find out exactly how much power its getting. any ideas are greatly appreciated, thanks
Eric

 

I'm guessing that it could be the switch, Anyone know if the switch Adjusts power or ground? if it adjusts the ground then i guess that could be my problem... now that i think of it, i should go check and see if the damn blower is getting ground at all. Starting to get annoyed and not think of things i should've thought of a while ago... lol

 

The switch that you select the fan speed does in fact provide the ground. Positive power to the motor is constant (when they key is in the RUN position), Don't worry, while looking at some wiring diagrams just two days ago I relized the same thing
Oh yea, before you replace the speed selector switch, I would recommend making sure the resistor block (accessable from the passenger side foot area, theres a lot of posts around here about this) is working. Its a $10 part, and are the problem nearly every time.

 

Awesome, I'm done for the night but I'm sure that will help me a lot tomorrow, I did find out that the motor is NOT getting a ground, do you happen to know exactly where the resistor block is on an 02 dakota? should i just follow the wires back from the fan? and would that prevent it from getting a ground? Thanks a lot for the help.

 

I'd check to see if the system uses a relay as well. If the switch does in fact provide the path to ground then it may use a relay to actually complete the circuit. Relays on the ground side aren't as common but they do exist so I'd double check that. Also, unless this system is different than the norm I'd say checking the resistor block is a waste of your time. Usually when the resistor block is bad only the lower fan speeds won't work but the Hi speed setting does because it usually receives full battery voltage. Unless this path is some kind of bypass through the resistor block that doesn't any of the voltage to drop across then the hi speed path should be a seperate wire. In this case, your high speed setting should/would work.

 

Negative, in this case.
Battery positive voltage is provided to the blower motor in RUN key position (via Fuse 13, 40A, in the PDC)
The ground path runs: blower motor>blower motor resistor block>"Connector 202" (located behind passenger side dash)>heater controler>case ground.

Blower motor resisitor block is located in the "upper center of instrument panel"... it should be removeable from the passenger side foot area, somewhere up in there. Sorry, I can't provide a picture .

I would recommend downloading the 2001 service manual (go to Gen 2 homepage, there is a thread posted at the top, with a link). 99% of that information should be the same, and is well worth the time to download.