Here are the symptoms...

Blower only sometimes works at vehicle start... but a good swift kick to the blower motor housing will almost always do the trick and kick the blower on. The blower will then blow full speed (with no issues) for a good while (temps are fine), before it sounds like its puttering along and dieing. Is this the motor itself? A relay? What sounds like the culprit?

 

What type of blower is it?

 

May sound stupid - but how do I tell? Standard blower on a 1997 Ram 1500 4x4 5.9L.

 

Could be acircut problem, have you checked to see if everything is alright? Could be a bad fuse too. Or flaky wire connection

 

Bad motor.
You have classic symptoms