Remove it again (you know how now) and reconnect it to the connector outside the plenum and see what is happening. Maybe you are burning off some oil (from your hands) on the wire? maybe the motor takes too much current? maybe the resistance is too low? maybe the smoke comes from the motor windings?

Alan

 

Hey Alan. It was hooked up outside the plenum. I’ll get someone to take care of the ignition while I watch it and report back. I just wanted to get some direction to make sure I didn’t fry the entire pack.

 

Unless there are other problems with the resistor pack the only thing you could damage is the new resistor winding you made. I'd let it run a bit - remember inside the plenum it would be cooled by the high air flow from the blower motor - it will get much hotter without that. Maybe use a hairdryer on cold to keep it cooler... it will still be quite hot. Verify it doesn't melt away and seems stable - verify the speeds still seem to be in reasonable steps. If you have a way to measure current at up to 25 amps it would be good to check the current in each speed.

Alan

 

Thanks Alan. Will do. Is it possible for you to explain where I need to measure the amps?

 

At the blower motor fuse (#17) is the easiest. The ammeter needs to be in series with the fuse (in the circuit) so take out the fuse and connect to the fuseholder terminals and add the fuse and ammeter together in series. Note that most simple DMM's cannot go above 10A.

Options - but not directly usable with your early fuses - it is compatible with ATC or ATM fuses depending what model you get - so likely usable for other cars - in your early car use leads with crocodile clips to connect this (you must add the right fuse value in the socket)

Alternatively if you have a DMM you can use a shunt like this to measure higher currents than 10A. (you need the 30A version)

Easiest of all is a DC clamp ammeter - but you probably don't have one.

Alan

 

@Alan So I was able to give it a test this evening. Hopefully you can see in the video that when I stop the hairdryer one of the coils gets red hot. As I’ve read, this can happen when there is no airflow? Once I started the hairdryer back up, the heat from the coil dissipated. If there was no airflow, would the coil specific to the selected fan speed get red hot? Hopefully that question makes sense. I did not test amperage at the CE panel as I wanted to get feedback on this first. We ran the fan at various speeds and all seemed ok but now that I somewhat understand how these things work, it makes me nervous that there will be enough airflow to keep things cool enough…especially because my new coil is soldered on.

 

This is how it is supposed to work. If the fan isn't running (e.g. the connection is broken) - then the resistor will not get hot because there will be no current flowing - all the current in the resistor also flows through the fan. The fan on higher speed moves a lot of air channeled right over the coil. At lower fan speeds the current & is lower, and also spread over a bigger resistor area (meanwhile the voltage drop is rather higher - but the cooling works the same way). Measuring fan current is mainly to make sure the fan isn't consuming too much power (and that you have the resistor about right).

Alan

 

Thanks Alan. So would you recommend still trying to measure the fan current at the CE panel?

 

Since the resistor failed initially - possibly due to over-current I'd say yes worthwhile to check this.

Alan

 

will do. Where would I place the clamp ammeter? Around the cord coming off the blower?

 

It has to be a single wire (either one) - at the fuse is probably still easiest to intercept. It must be a DC clamp ammeter - very few support DC - most are AC only - not sure I'd buy one just for this, unless you have other needs for it.

Alan

 

Hi @Alan I was able to measure, at least I believe I did this correctly. Would it make sense the amperage was constant throughout the different blower speeds? It ranged from 11.40 on the highest speed to 11.54 on the lowest speed. I was using an Ames CM1000a, 60/600 selection, DC current. Doesn’t seem correct to me.

 

No it doesn't seem correct at all, it should be highest on high speed and it should vary significantly. Did you measure on a single wire (e.g. the positive feed only) connected in series with the fuse #17. So connect a wire to each fuse holder connector - then connect the clamp meter around one of these wires and then connect those wires to the fuse.

Alan

 

Any ideas of what I did wrong? Wrong setting on the clamp, to close in proximity to other wires? I clamped on a black wire that was feeding into the #17 fuse. Do I need to take the clamp on/off between swithching fan settings? I’m not grasping what I did incorrectly.

 

Verify this is the right fuse? it should be. Measure as I suggested - connect to the fuse holder terminals - with the fuse in the circuit outside the panel.

Alan