The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Heater Blower Question

My old blower kept popping the fuse and although not frozen, I thought it was time to replace it. It moaned and groaned and made a lot of noise. I put in a new blower and fuse, I believe 20 amp. The new blower seems to run great.
Days later my truck would run and then just die unexpectedly. Sometimes it wouldn't start. It wouldn't keep cranking and cranking, it just wouldn't start. Then sometimes it would. I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what is wrong with my truck. Then today I think it hit me. As I was driving down the street with my heater "on", my truck just died again. Turned heater off and started right up and came home. Ran her in the driveway, then turned the heater on and simotaneusly the truck died.
I guess my question is what gives? Does the blower require a ground? Could wrong fuse be doing it? Something shorting out?
My motor/carb is in EXCELLENT condition, turn key start everytime, ran flawless before this.
I am running an HEI distributor.
Any help would be great. Thanks!

I don't know how your year of truck is wired but based on the AD trucks, a heater motor drawing too much current could damage the supply to the ignition switch and/or the switch itself. It might be a good idea to see if your ignition switch is getting hot when you put the heater on. You can also measure the feed voltage to the coild when the heater is turned on.

thank you very much. yes, it seems as if the two (heater and ignition) are somehow connected together, although I do not know how. I will check tomorrow and see if the switch heats up as you described.
Electrical is my achilles heel in the automotive world!
thanks again

Also check Your Battery when the truck is running to make sure the charging sys. is working if you check on a 6 volt should be 7.5 volts on a 12 volt at 14 or 14.5 volts mabe Your charging sys. is not keeping up with the demands that the heater motor is putting on it .Have the truck running and take a volt meter and put it across the battery ,take a reading , than turn the lights on and take a reading ,than turn the heater on and take a reading if You start seeing low volt readings at the battery could be a bad generator , reg. or a battery . You can check the battery after You have the truck just setting there it should read 6 volt or 12 volts after You have recharged it.Some HEI sys. are more sensative to Lower voltages.

Also when Your driving Your truck does the amp gauge stay on the plus side or does it show a discharge when You have the lights on or the heater on that would tell You if the charging sys. is keeping up with the demand .
Pete

Once again the stovebolters came through for me. I investigated it further today. After a good nights sleep and a cool head I checked everything under the hood. Perfect....so I went on to under the dash. When I started inspecting the ignition switch, I noticed the pink wire was barely clipped into the ignition switch. As you guys know, the wires go into a black plastic plug, then the plug snaps into the back of the ignition switch. The pink wire was basically falling out of the plug. So, I took her completely out, rebent her a bit, snapped her back into the hard black plastic plug, smeared a little di-electric grease on to the ignition switch, then snapped the plug onto the ignition switch. Whooppeee! I don't want to get to confident yet, but drove her all day and no problems. Also, while running I put a meter on the posts with the heater running and pulled about 14.5 bolts! I think I caused this problem myself, because when I put the new blower in I also installed some new vent tubes under the dash. In wrestling these things, I probably banged some things around under there. Rookie mistake.
Anyways, thanks to all who through in their 2 cents, I will let you know if this is the fix. keeping my fingers crossed.
On another note, my blower also blows the 10 amp fuse consistently. It is a new Thriftmaster. I popped in a 15 amp today and so far so good!