I just purchased a 1986 Dodge Ram 350 van, with a 5.9 (360) motor, not sure about the transmission. Does anyone know what type of gears are in the differencial? I have no idea. Anyway, I have a few problems with the van.

First off, the blower motor for the heat/defrost/AC dosen't work, any suggestions on what to look at? I replaced all of the fuses.

Also, the wipers stopped working. When I turn them on, I hear the relay, or possibly the motor kicking on, but the wipers do not move.

One more thing, the motor smokes a bit, basically at start up, I'm not too worried about. However, do you have any suggestions on how to lessen it any? I'm not sure of the mileage since the odometer only has 5 places, so it's either 52000, or 152K.

 

Hey buddy.... I have no direct experiance yet with dodge motors, but I can tell you some history from previous vehicles....

I had the same blower problem on a chevy truck I had... turned out right at the blower motor under the hood there was a loose wire... pretty corroded... I just stripped it and soldered it on for life long AC/HEAT. Give that a shot... but before you solder, see if you are getting power to the wires by checking with a voltmeter while the blower is on from the cabin.

Wipers - Possilbly a bad ground to the motor.... once again, pull out the voltmeter and check for voltage.

If the smoke happens only at startup... theres a good chance that its valve stem seals... its not a crazy hard job, but it could be time consuming and tricky. If these seals are screwed, then what happens is that you stop the motor, and the oil in the valve cover will slowly sink down to the valves, which the seals stop the oil from entering the cylinders. If bad, the cyl will have oil in it in the morning, and thats your smoke problem. But, if its a different problem, then your heading toward a rebuild to get rid of it. and if thats the situation, a thicker weight oil, such as 20w50 might stop the smoking some.

Hope this helps
Shawn

 

"Also, the wipers stopped working. When I turn them on, I hear the relay, or possibly the motor kicking on, but the wipers do not move."


We had the same problem on our 1988 B350 van. Our wiper motor was running, however the wiper blades did not move. Turned out that the plastic bushings that connect the wiper linkage components together had gone bad. The plastic bushings are available at O'Reilly Auto Parts, AutoZone, etc. I had to buy three kits, because all my plastic bushings were bad. I think the kits cost about $3.00 each.

You'll need to remove the wiper arms first and then the hood cowling to get access to the wiper linkage bushings. I removed the hood first, in order to more easily remove the cowling. The hood is held in place with four bolts, and the cowling is held in place by several phillips-head screws. Once you remove the hood, the wiper arms, and the cowling, you'll have access to the wiper linkage components. It was an easy job, and our wipers now work perfectly.

 

blower motors go bad or the push on connectors can be source of trouble too... i had to replace the blower motor and the resistor too. and there is common trouble with the fuse holders and bad connections.. i had to wrap mine in foil.. an old trick that has worked for the past 6 months... will put an ampmeter on there to see how much it is pulling one of these days but fuse holder probmems are common for the AC fuse.

 

Shorting the Fuse could be the short way to have a fire in the dash. If you are regularly blowing a 30A fuse then more than likely there is problem with your fan blower having an intermitant short possibly caused by the brushes in the blower. Another possibility would be getting a voltage spike with the circuit already hot and being nudged over the edge into blowing. Either way I'm not so sure I would replace the fuse with a dead short, if there is already problems with the fuse holder over heating and the contacts melting out of it like I've started to see with mine sometimes. Also there could be a poor short to ground caused by corrosion in a connector suddenly becoming a better short to grounds as it warms up or gets wet.

Given the possible choice of a 70 cent part and dash fire, I'll take the part every time. Heck, leave the spare fuses in the glove box. When it reaches that point I WANT it to blow and killl the circuit, because there really is something else wrong.

Odd Electrical Tidbit (83-87 for sure, maybe more) -- IF you are driving and notice that you have lost all of your dash control lighting, speedo, etc.... you also have no Tail lights. You still have brake and head lights because those are part of a different circuit. All of the other marker lights though share the dash circuit. Things to check for your short are the liscense plate light and cable, the side marker lights, and anything plugged into your cigarette lighter, since that is there too.

 

The blower motor and resistor already replaced. This model famous for AC fuse problems. Think it is actually the way the wire connected to the fuse holder.. rivit or something. not a good connection and it heats up and melts the fuse... the fuse doesnt really blow it just dribbles melted solder from the fuse on to the fuse holder. I have met others who told me it is common and that the holder can be soldered to the wire and cure all. Will do this soon. Fuse goes if on high fan for a while in Fla summer. Putting in a new fan and fan resistor cct did nothing for the fuse problem. Tin foil worked 6 months ago and still working. Humm do you smell smoke???

 

Have you replaced the switch? it is about a $7 part I think I was able to pick it up at my local AutoZone/parts store. They do go bad, and while you are in there you can check the wireing to the blower motor. That gets REALLY hot on both of my vans So hot infact that, the connector discolored, the insulation dried up and cracked off on the switch end.