'97 Malibu, Strange blower fan wiring issue

[epic]

I just purchased a 97 Malibu. It's far better built than my old Honda Accord.

Problem is, the blower fan won't come on. It's 5 Degrees Celsius here right now in Atlantic Canada, so I'm hoping to fix this asap.

The guy who sold it to me said the blower fan didn't work, it looked like an easy enough fix so I didn't worry too much about it. The blower fan itself does work. I attached it to a 12V power supply, and it spins up fine.

The resistor pack is worn out (Attached image)

However, my research indicates it should run on high, as that bypasses the resistor pack with a relay. I can get a new resistor pack at the dealer, but I want to make sure it will even be usable before I go spend more money.

There is no voltage on the purple and black wires going to the blower motor. I checked and tested all of the fuses, they're fine. I tried swapping the two identical relays, that didn't fix the problem. Could they both be bad? I even tried shorting the fusebox where the relay plugs in.

I pulled out the controls, and tested every speed setting with a multimeter. There's no resistance between whichever one is selected and the ground.

I also checked the connectivity to ground, and there is 0 resistance between the black blower motor wire and the purple wire.




The only other thing I can think of is the purple wire itself is broken somewhere.

Where does that go to? I can check it's continuance, and if it's broke, just run a parallel wire. I haven't been able to find a decent circuit diagram to figure out where the other end is.





EDIT: I'm still trying to figure this out. I've realized that 30A maxifuse #6, labeled air, has nothing in it. There was a 30A maxifuse in the glove compartment. Problem with this is, when I try to plug it in, there's no contacts. I looked in with a light, and couldn't see any that may have fell. What is maxifuse #6 for?

EDIT2: It's for an environmental gas monitor which my car doesn't have apparently.

[epic]

Bump? Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

I don't even know where to go from here. Does anyone know where that purple wire from the blower motor comes from?

[epic]

It was the brown wire from the fuse to the heater controls. It had a short.

I spliced in a new wire, and it works-ish.

I don't think it's completely connected to the pins in the plug that go into the heater controls. I have no idea what the correct terminology is there.

Where would I get replacement pins and/or plug?

[epic]

Feels like I'm talking to myself..

The connector has no part number. It's part of the body wiring harness which costs over $600, and is discontinued. Great.

Found the connector at a junkyard for $5, installed it, and nothing. I'm getting very confused at this point.

There is voltage on the HVAC fuse, there is 0 resistance between the connector and the fuse box, the fuse is good, But there's no voltage coming through.

This shouldn't even be possible. There's a connection, there's voltage at one end, and none at the other. I'm losing my mind over this right now.

[DrivenDaily]

One of the common issues with the control head is the failure for no apparent reason. "Normal" fixes don't seem to work on it. Do a search on this forum or use Google on the 'net to find the DIY fixes that work most of the time. From them you should be able to pick up enough info to apply to your issue.

[epic]

It was definitely the connector. Picked one up for $5 at a junkyard, they just cut one off with 3" of wire to spare.

Must have blown a fuse screwing with it, there were two blown under the hood, the 12V accessory, and a 10A that had a 4 letter acronym for a description.(Can't remember which one)

Replaced those fuses, blower works great on 3, 4, and 5 now. The fuses were I tact when I started all this. I didn't double check them until I couldn't get anything earlier on today.

I know that there's a connection between the 1 and 2 positions and the resistor pack. I've tried two resistors, both just gave me 3/4/5. Is there anything else that can affect the blower speed that I'm not aware of? Could it just be bad luck and the second (used ) resistor also happens to not work on 1/2?

[RalphP]

Epic - Back when my nephew had a wrecking yard, he wouldn't sell the resistor packs - they were so prone to failure on the 1/2 speeds.

So, yes, I'd say bad luck.

New ones aren't that much ... http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/rafr...&parttype=6557 has them as little as $14 plus shipping. Spring for the ACDelco and you may break $25 getting it to you.

RwP