12v heaters

Joshua Nelson did pass the time by typing:

Not well enough to heat a vehicle on a cold day. That and it's a great way to melt things and start fires.

What model of Jeep? Sometimes it's an easy fix.

No, or as our friends from California Alta would say, ¡No!

Earle

They put a big load on the alternator and battery for starters and cannot keep up to the cold if the vehicle is moving.

What Jeep, the fans are usually an easy fix.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Joshua Nels>

1982 CJ. None of the dash switches work except headlights and wipers. (No vent, no heater.)

You can tag the heater motor power wire under the battery and feed it 12 volts from the battery to see if it spins up.

If yes, the switch is bad.

If not, then you use a booster cable from the battery negative to the heater motor case under the battery to make sure it has a ground and tag the power wire with 12 volts.

If it fires, the ground is bad.

If not, the motor is toast.

You can do like I did and put a blower motor from a full sized 73 Blazer

350 engine with AC in it. The fan fits right on, you just have to make the opening in the firewall larger for the larger motor.

On low, it puts out more that the CJ blower did on high.

Just a warning, in the US, the parts stores have two versions of this blower motor, one has a shaft that is 1/2" too long. Their parts computer is messed up. The call one the 'heavy duty' or 'premium' or something. If they have 2, compare them and grab the one with the shorter output shaft.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Joshua Nels>

The vent is mechanical, so if they don't do anything, the linkage parts are disconnected or missing. The fan is the only electrical part, and the motor is a common failure item. The replacement motor that works really good is from an S10 or S15 (Chevy or GMC).

Pelonis makes decent ones that just barely take the chill out of the air. They cost much more than 20 bucks and still wont do the job you need in a Jeep on a cold day. The cheap ones you refer to are absolutely useless.

KH

I never fixed mine til I left San Diego for the Sierra. The Chevy blower works great, and overpowers the missing weatherstripping in my rig.

Thanks Mike, I will try this. I had planned on fixing it eventually anyway, I just havent' had the time and it's starting to get nippy out... I thought one of the cigarette-adapter-powered ones might hold me over from October through December or so. (Didn't expect it to warm me up in a full scale blizzard or anything.) but it sounds like even so, that would just be a waste of $20. Guess I'll follow the old mantra "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right..."

Just think of the thousands we would have saved over the years if we had followed this wise advice every time. KH

Damn! I always thought it was "If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing." Now, I'm going to have to change my whole approach! :-)

More wise philosophy:

A lot is good, more is better, and too much is just right.

Measure twice, cut once.

Speed/power/fun costs money. How much do you want?

Drive it like you stole it.

You can do it right, or do it twice.

If you think it'll break, it will.

If you don't break anything off roading, you're not trying hard enough.

Chris

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 16:58:41 GMT, "c" shared the following:

A couple more:

"If you ain't cheatin' then you aint tryin'." "Do unto others before they can do unto you." ;-)

-- Travis FOR SALE: '63 VW Camo Baja... $1000 *FIRM*

that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.

:wq!

travis did pass the time by typing:

Dilbert. "Measure twice, cut twice, blame the tape measure."

If at first you don't succeed, failure might be more your thing.

He who hesitates is last.

The light at the end of the tunnel might be a train.

Hesco "It takes money to go fast, how fast do you want to go?"