1996 Blower motor/radio circuits

A friend has a 96, the blower motor randomly stops working, when the blower motor dies the radio goes as well.
Occasionally it is "dead" I could not reproduce that, she said it hasn't happened in a while.
I figure about the only place those two are related is the ignition switch, but I'm not familiar with the year. I went from 87 to 01 and skipped everything in between.

anyway, it's a 96, 4.0, 2wd, 5spd stripper model.
Still has the factory AM/FM radio (that's right, not even a tape deck!)

school me on the dash electrics and save me the FSM reading time.

If it is the ignition switch some tips about taking apart the late model steering column would be appreciated.
thanks.

Those two fuses are pretty close together. Check the fuse box to see if there is any fluid leaking on to it. It could be that there is some melting of the box. Check it, if it's leaking, fix the leak, clean off the box, check the circuit tabs.

Check the grounds on the self tapper by the ecu on the driver inner fender. They run that stuff. Also runs some of the dummy lights on the indicator panel, including the part-time light on 4x4 models and a few others. On an auto it is the ground for the TCU which is how I discovered this.

ParadiseXJ said:

Those two fuses are pretty close together. Check the fuse box to see if there is any fluid leaking on to it. It could be that there is some melting of the box. Check it, if it's leaking, fix the leak, clean off the box, check the circuit tabs.

Click to expand...

no leaks. As the owner of a 5spd MJ I've done that dance before.

kastein said:

Check the grounds on the self tapper by the ecu on the driver inner fender. They run that stuff. Also runs some of the dummy lights on the indicator panel, including the part-time light on 4x4 models and a few others. On an auto it is the ground for the TCU which is how I discovered this.

Click to expand...

I ohmed out the ground from the radio and it seemed good (3<). I'll doublecheck it though.
She says when it's 'dead' that there's nothing, no lights, no blowr, nothing in the interior, which is why I suspected ignition switch.

it's got the chryco column, it appears to have the ignition switch up by the tumbler. I'm not sure if those are prone to failure like the GM switches were. I'll check out the grounds under the dash more betterer and get back.

I replicated her blower issue simply by turning it on and off a bunch of times. When the blower quit the radio went dead as well. I didn't touch the ignition, and we weren't driving down the road (sitting in the driveway idling) so I'd not think it's a loose connection somewhere.

I'm gong to have to open up the dashboard I guess.

No need to open the dash. The 95/96 column is a pain to work on due to tamperproof torx on the ignition switch bolts, but there's no stupid pushrod thing on the column, like you said, so it's all right there by the steering wheel.

When mine went bad, it was intermittent between no ground at all, and no problem at all. My tire had contacted the inner fender, grabbed the other end of the screw, and wobbled it around until it wallowed the hole out, so it was nice clean metal, just not always in contact. The blower motor would randomly flicker on and off. If you wiggle that screw and everything acts up, you have your culprit... else you are likely right and it's something to do with the ignition switch. I don't see how that could be the issue without killing the engine as well, however.

kastein said:

I don't see how that could be the issue without killing the engine as well, however.

Click to expand...

I had assumed that it was wired like the earlier column. One wire out of the ignition switch feeds the relays and the like, one wire feeds the interior stuff.

I haven't looked at any wiring diagrams though.

I do not like the bastard year.

ground on the fender looked good. I cleaned it up and reinstalled anyway.
It's tight, so no wobbling in the hole.

still no change with the symptoms.