"heater blower not working"...

53ryder · Nov 30, 2018

Looking at 1978 Dodge Aspen station wagon on Craigslist. One of the things the seller mentions that is not working is the "heater blower". Could be a bad fan motor or maybe a bad heater core or both. Never owned a 'F' body. Are fan motors and/or heater cores for this car hard to find? Wouldn't need new or NOS but a used working fan motor and/or heater core, depending on what is actually needed, would work just fine. Parts plentiful or hard to find?

Any thoughts?

Glenn Ryder

volare 77 · Nov 30, 2018

I don`t think the heater core comes into play if they say the blower doesn`t work. Now if the heater fan blows and the air is cold then yes maybe. Heater blower not working could be the switch itself or the motor or resistor or maybe a fuse.

53ryder · Nov 30, 2018

Good advice. How about finding parts? Easy, doable, or buy something else 'cause parts are rare as hens teeth?

Glenn

Opticon77 · Dec 1, 2018

Blower motors and the fan cages are still on RockAuto for cheap ($30).
NOS blower resistors are still floating around... Old Stock CHRYSLER Dodge Plymouth OEM Blower Motor Resistor Mopar 3847071 | eBay
The worst failure would probably be at the control unit in the dash but even that would be serviceable. I've even seen NOS replacements although at $100 prices.

Doesn't sound like a dealbreaker to me.

slant6billy · Dec 1, 2018

My 79 just did this 2 weeks ago. Typical is the switch or resistor. The resistor is the shunt or burden that gets you low/mid/ high speed of the fan. If the heater hoses are still connected at the firewall and there is no loss of coolant, the heater core is good. If some person tied the hoses together or looped the hose from manifold to water pump, then the core is probably bad. If you have to do a heater core, check my bad lighting and video of my 79 getting changed- the whole dash has to get removed:

53ryder · Dec 1, 2018

Thanks for all the info. Have owned 60's Mopar before. Some parts were easy to find, some were like looking for the Ark of the Covenant!

Glenn

Poly · Dec 1, 2018

53ryder said:
Looking at 1978 Dodge Aspen station wagon on Craigslist. One of the things the seller mentions that is not working is the "heater blower". Could be a bad fan motor or maybe a bad heater core or both. Never owned a 'F' body. Are fan motors and/or heater cores for this car hard to find? Wouldn't need new or NOS but a used working fan motor and/or heater core, depending on what is actually needed, would work just fine. Parts plentiful or hard to find?

Any thoughts?

Glenn Ryder

The first thing I'd rule out is that the cowling is not rotted out and allowing water into the blower housing. That's about my only thought on the "blower not working".

BudW · Dec 6, 2018

When someone mentions “blower” – it generally refers to air flow, aka the blower motor circuit.

My question is the car mentioned a factory A/C car or a factory non-A/C car?

Parts are available for either and not too difficult to service (on either) – but the procedures and parts are completely different depending on which version it has.

The factory non-A/C car has part of the blower motor sticking out into the engine compartment and looks like:

Yellow circle – silver in color (kinda hidden behind brace).

The blower motor, blower resistor, blower switch, fuse, wiring harness and ground attachment are the six possible causes.
BudW

slant6billy · Dec 7, 2018

Update: Started investigating my 79. Turned out to be the push button dash controls for heat / AC. Note the blower resistor for 79 is not the same for 78 (this is the 78)

On the 78 it mounts on the plastic case that the heater core/ AC core resides in behind the dash. I had to remove the passenger side dash to get to it. The 78 had 2 plugs. The 79 has one plug with 5 wires where the 78 is split 3 and 2. The pattern is different and they are not interchageable. The 79 mounted up on the lower windshield frame. The resistor was not my issue. The controls were