*Help* Blower motor switch problem

[steelynirvana]

So awhile back I posted about finding the insulation of the purple/orange wire melted away. Was waiting til spring to go to the junkyard and get another harness out of another Explorer. In the meantime I cut it at the fuseblock and not finding out til afterwards that it controls the turn signals, back up lights and blower motor switch. In the meantime ive "borrowed" a constant hot from the lighter and via alligator clip, refed it.

So the past few days when the fan switch is on high it will all of a sudden "drop out" with very little air coming out. Switching/playing with the switch gets it back to high, feels like it comes out of the notch. This morning same thing then it gets scary. I smell plastic burning. I turn tje fan switch to off but its still blowing on low!! I disconnected the alligator clip which killed power and thankfully was almost at work.

So, would it be safe to say that its the fan switch or could the blower resistor be bad. Its worried me finding the melted purple/orange wire a few months back and think this may have something to do with it.

 

[the_don]

It sounds like the switch itself is bad, but the wire feeding it is a white/lt blue.the purple/orange looks like it feed just the coil side of the blower relay under the hood, as well as b/u switch,drl module, and turn signal. i would replace the heater switch, repair the wire and then try to figure out what burned the wire and why it didnt pop the fuse.since you cut the wire, then back feed it the problem was never resolved so whatever is shorting out will continue to burn more wire until.....:fire:

 

[FLwireman]

Mine burned too

After removing the ash tray assembly, the mount and everything, I found the wire harness connector to the switch is melted. Not only that, but under the hood at the blower motor the wires for the motor and resistor were melted together. I separated and wrapped burned wires under the hood. At the control panel under the dash I cut the high speed blower wire and added a 35 amp switch. I had to use extra wire to make it long enough. The motor works by grounding the high speed wire, the power is already there, it just needs a ground. IIRC the high speed wire at the controller is orange with small black stripe. All I have is high speed blower, no air conditioning. The heater works fine.
BTW I have a '93 Eddie Bauer. I have had it this way for 2 years and did have to replace the switch once.
As always, all advice is "Use at your own risk!!"