The colder it is the dumber I get.

[GPster]

To be different I'll give the question first and then ramble on. 1989 Ford Ranger XLT 4 cylinder with A/C. Is there some kind of thermostat in the engine cooling system that keeps the heater/defrosterblower from running until the water/coolant system comes up to temp? Yesterday the blower never started so there was no heat and no defrost. In the past I have noticed the blower starting after the engine has been running for a while and I just figured that that might be the reason and I thought it might be a design. Because of my hearing I can only tell when it comes on on high so it might be running at a slower speed but the windows clear and don't fog up and after a while I'll have to turn the heater thermostat down. Nothing happened with it yesterday. Not low/medium/high speed or with the A/C turned on. Also nothing in Defrost,  Heat/Defrost, or Heat. I bought a Haynes Manual for this thing when I got it but it tells you nothing and doesn't even have a wiring diagram that might tell you what components are in the system. Someone here had one of these things that was a NAPA delivery truck with close to 200,000 miles on it before it went to Mexico so maybe there's a little bit of knowledge here. Ideas ? GPster

[rooster]

To be different I'll give the question first and then ramble on. 1989 Ford Ranger XLT 4 cylinder with A/C. Is there some kind of thermostat in the engine cooling system that keeps the heater/defrosterblower from running until the water/coolant system comes up to temp? Yesterday the blower never started so there was no heat and no defrost. In the past I have noticed the blower starting after the engine has been running for a while and I just figured that that might be the reason and I thought it might be a design. Because of my hearing I can only tell when it comes on on high so it might be running at a slower speed but the windows clear and don't fog up and after a while I'll have to turn the heater thermostat down. Nothing happened with it yesterday. Not low/medium/high speed or with the A/C turned on. Also nothing in Defrost,  Heat/Defrost, or Heat. I bought a Haynes Manual for this thing when I got it but it tells you nothing and doesn't even have a wiring diagram that might tell you what components are in the system. Someone here had one of these things that was a NAPA delivery truck with close to 200,000 miles on it before it went to Mexico so maybe there's a little bit of knowledge here. Ideas ? GPster

My Chilton book dont cover the smaller Rangers, but I think you can get it online at the auto zone site. Take a test light , check before and after the switch,. Get a hot wire from somewhere and go around the swt. to test. If its happening to you its happened to someone else. Check the archives at http://www.ford-trucks.com/  

FUSE

[Bruce Dorsi]

I chased an intermittent problem one time with similar symptoms.

Before you go much further Joe, clean, tighten, and verify the GROUNDS for the blower motor!

[GPster]

Both ideas were helpful, particularly the one about the ground. The ideas and the sun coming out got me going. I went out and brushed the snow off the hood and went to start it to let it warm up some. Put the key in the ignition and turned it, and what to my wandering ear should appear? the sound of the blower running. Picked up the hood anyway figuring I'd check the blower ground wire and guess what the inner fender well on the passenger side has the radiater support, the battery, the air conditioning unit, the air box and computor pack for the engine, 5/16 of an inch, the blower motor, blower housing and firewall. The computor on that truck must be tied into this site and when it looked like I was going to work on it "It Healed". We'll juyst add that to the "i should look at that sometime"list. GPster