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Heater Problem

MudslinginXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Pennsylvania
No matter what setting i have my heater on whether it be vent, defraust or anything it will only work on High. As soon as i turn it down a notch it stops blowing air. I tried searching but they were all dead ends. Can someone help point me in the right direction so i can fix this problem?
 
The most common cause is the heater ballast resistor mounted on the air plenum just above the passenger's feet. It is normally a grey connector with about 4 heavier gauge wires going to it. Once the connector is removed there are two (I think) small hex head screws holding the assembly.
 
Yup, if it only blows on 'high' it's almost always because of a blown resistor pack. The first three settings use a resistor to step the voltage down, but 'high' doesn't, so when the pack blows you only get the one setting.
 
Somewhere there is a decent write up on replacing the thermal fuse on the blower resistor pack. (Do a search, the link is here somewhere) When my 95 did the same thing, I went to the local electronics supply store and picked up a thermal fuse for less than $2 including tax. It takes only a few minutes to crimp one in and it works like new again. Much better than paying the dealership for a whole resistor pack. While I was at it, I pulled my blower motor out and found that it was dragging (which most likely caused the failure), I drilled out the rivets, cleaned out the accumulation of crap, and re-lubricated the bushings.
 
i had the same exact problem on mine where it would only worked on high then replaced the heat resistor and about a month later it did it again coming to find out that the blower motor was bad!!!
 
Here is a great write up for the solution.

http://www.geocities.com/chmwatson/...selink_fix.html

My 93 had the same problem and this was the fix. I did things a bit differently, I simply went to the wrecking yard and pulled the entire resistor pack and put it in mine. It is risky since this is such a common problem but for 5 bucks a try I figured it was easier than messing with radio shack and a soldering iron.
 
Last edited:
woogybugger said:
Here is a great write up for the solution.

http://www.geocities.com/chmwatson/...selink_fix.html

My 93 had the same problem and this was the fix. I did things a bit differently, I simply went to the wrecking yard and pulled the entire resistor pack and put it in mine. It is risky since this is such a common problem but for 5 bucks a try I figured it was easier than messing with radio shack and a soldering iron.
dead link
 
That one works. Very nice write up.
Is the resistor pack/thermal fuse in the same spot on 97+ XJ's?

resistorpack2.jpg
 
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