Auxiliary Blower Motor?

On the 81 Custom project. I seem to have two blower motors.  The easily identifiable Motorcraft one mounted through the firewall, which is wired up and spinning under power applied.  There's also this one (pictured) that is mounted inside the cab under the the passenger side dash.  When I unscrewed the mounting screws, it dropped right out, as the wires were torn/chewed through.  I can't figure out the wiring for this.  The wiring diagrams under Electrical in Documentation were for 85 and 86, and the diagrams in the EVTM for 81 didn't show this.  I read on one of the articles that A/C was sometimes dealer-installed, and my control switch on the dash indicates A/C.  Any help on where this wires up?

I would have to guess that your truck has dealer installed AC as factory AC truck AFAIK only had 1 blower motor and it was in the engine bay on the HVAC box.
Dave ----

I agree.  I've not seen anything in the documentation that would fit that blower's description.

I've no wisdom to offer on the wiring but may be able to provide some useful information.

My '82 has dealer air installed.  The blower motor is located in the cab, behind the glove box and (from what I remember) looks similar to the one in your pic.

A long (long) time ago the squirrel cage fan broke at the shaft and needed replacement.  This is when I learned the AC in my truck was actually a system from ARA Manufacturing.  I was lucky that ARA had a distro center located on the west side of Phoenix, not too far from where I lived at the time.  I was able to purchase a fan from them.

From what I recall, ARA used a different dash heat/air control switch panel than stock Ford.  That might give you a hint if you have one of their systems.

Also, the ARA system has an electronic module used to engage the compressor clutch.  it is located in the dash on the passenger side, just under the dash cap, above the glove box.  the module will either be blue or black (don't know what the difference is) and there is a transistor in there that blows out once in a while (don't ask how I know this).

ARA was purchased a while back but they still exist (www.aramanufacturing.com).  I've written them an email to see if I can learn anything about my system but I'm not holding my breath.  Their website lists  Hotmail and Gmail accounts for customer contact.

Hope this helps.

Good info!  

I emailed this morning and was surprised to receive a prompt reply from Mark Foley at ARA.  Mark was able provide a wiring diagram but wasn't able to find a parts list, install manual, etc.  He did, however, offer to help me track down whatever parts I might need.

the wiring diagram shows AC and Heater blower motors, so you may indeed have an ARA system.  Wiring diagram is here:
ARA_Air_Con-0507783.pdf


Contact information from the email:

ARA AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS INC.
P.O.BOX 602, FRISCO, TX 75034
CELL: 214-693-6192
EMAIL: autoac@hotmail.com / aramfgco@hotmail.com
WEB:  aramanufacturing.com / arasourcing.com


ARA CENTRAL SHIPMENTS
PH: 214-697-1464
 
ARA SOUTH SHIPMENTS
PH: 214-693-6192


Have fun with it.

Walt - That's wonderful.  Good job!

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread but I have this same system and control module. In my case, I was stripping the dashboard from my interior so I could renovate the floor and firewall insulation, and when I tried to disconnect the plugs from this module, the jacks pulled right off the board.

I'm pretty sure I can re-solder them - the board is very basic. But since they're irreplaceable now and I had to open it anyway, I figured I'd snap a few pics in case anybody else has an issue with one of these. I didn't make a full schematic, but it should be possible to reconstruct the circuit from what's below.






Part List:
R1 - 18k 5%
R2 - 47k 5%
R3 - 5.6k 5%
R4 - 390k 5%
R5 - 2.2k 5%
R6 - 1k 5%
R7 - 18k 5%
R8 - 18k 5%
C1 (yellow) - 100n M63
C1 (electrolytic, also labeled C1) 10u 16V
VR1 - HDK trimpot, unlabeled, I can't get an accurate reading without desoldering it
TR1 - 2N2222
TR2 - 2N2222
TR3 - NP2907
D1 - 1N4001
D2 - 1N4001
D3 - not readable, hopefully it being green helps a little
K1 - 111NC D012-W, looks like a standard 12VDC SPDT. If my Google search is right, looks like a 6A.

From the PDF posted above, we know conn1 goes to gnd/blower switch/compressor clutch, conn2 goes to a thermistor which is installed in the air vent, and conn3 goes to a slidepot labeled "cold/off".

It looks to me like they made up their own heater-control-unit bezel because mine doesn't appear to match any of the Shop Manual diagrams:



I have more pics in an archive if anybody needs more information about tracing out their own system.

Well done!  That may be a huge help for someone in the future!

i love learning something new. the f100 (yet to be named) that i bought last month to restore is an absolute base model. barring one exception, it has dealer air! it has characteristics which i have never seen before. i have started a thread to journal how this project goes so when i get into it i will focus on the ac and add as many specs as i discover

Maybe we should have a few howto pages with A/C related stuff some of us are finding in our trucks. I have my panel all torn apart right now - I'd be happy to document precisely how this ARA system was installed and how it works.

I can't quite tell if it was "dealer" installed or not. It has a number of professionally-made connectors but also a few wire taps are in there. Maybe it was a mix of both.

We have the page, shown below, at Documentation/HVAC/HVAC Systems and I could put a tab where the blue scribble is named something like "Aftermarket A/C".  Would that work?  We can then put another set of tabs below that for each of the systems we document, with the first being ARA.

Does that work?  I can easily do it if you'd like to see what it would look like.  And you can create the document yourself and I can add it.  Or I can copy your previous post.

Yeah that would be great! What's the best way for me to get you some content? A google doc or something? I'm not sure how you edit that section. I'm going to be re-assembling my dash over the next week and I figured I'd document how this aftermarket system is wired and plumbed in the process. I'll also make a list of any part numbers I find.

First, before I forget it, any number you find on a part is not a part number.  

In the mid-60's Ford had a Better Idea and started placing ID #'s on the parts.  But the Master Parts Catalog shows part numbers, so they also published a cross reference book.  I have the cross ref's so can convert the #'s you find to PN's - in many cases.  But some of the plastic parts have multiple #'s on them, some of which are seemingly on all the plastic parts regardless of year or color, so the numbers don't always get us back to the exact part.  And several different ID #'s resolve to the same PN in many cases.

As for the documentation, there are multiple ways of doing it.  You can give me a document in pdf or Google/Word format and I can embed it.  I've done that many, many times on the site, and you can see an example on the page at Documenation/Reference/Standard & Utility Parts Catalog.  That's a 320 page document so will take a bit to load, but you will see that it looks like it is on the site.  However, it really is just a document on my OneDrive.  So if I update it the next time someone loads it the updates will show.

You could send me a document and I can load it up that way, and if you then have updates you can send those to me in a new file and I'll replace the file with the new one.  Done.

Or, I can take a document apart and put the individual text sections and pictures directly on the page.  An example of that is the page at Documentation/Electrical/Voltage Drop Testing.  It was written by member KR98664, as shown, and I created the web page.  That was more work as we had to go back and forth on how to do it, with him knowing what he wanted and me knowing what I could do.  But in the end we got something that looks good and uses all the space on the page - which the embedded document doesn't initially since it always comes up at 100%, although you can increase the zoom.

So, it is your call.  Whatever you are familiar with.

taskswap, your A/C bezel looks exactly like the one in my truck, down to the missing knob on the fan speed switch!

The wiring harness to my bezel is in sad shape so I have rewiring on my list of Things To Do.  I am following this thread with interest.

I will post some kind of doc with a ton more photos and such but I just wanted to share this for now. I made a component diagram of my installation:



I'll also repost the wiring diagram from earlier in the thread as an image just so it's easier to view:



It's a relatively simple system with a few remaining mysteries. Some comments:

1. The "ARA components" appear to be mainly the in-dash airbox/condenser, control unit, and custom climate-control additions (faceplate, potentiometer, switch). The other components are required but not sourced from ARA. For instance the blower motor and A/C compressor - they look pretty standard to me. If they failed I imagine they could be replaced with special parts.

2. The control box is the brain of the system. It's been awhile since I did much analog electronics work (I was always more into digital) but it looks like it's just a comparator between the thermistor in the evaporator box/duct and the climate control cool/warm slidepot (which is added to the stock climate control via a bracket and a linkage.)

If your control box is damaged I believe you could replace it with any standard digital temperature controller, like the ones used by the homebrew / sous vide crowds to DIY their setups. They're usually $25 on eBay. Most are programmable, and you'd wire them to turn on and off the compressor and in-dash blower when the cabin air temp is too high, with the setpoint controlled by that slidepot.

It would be an interesting side project to actually do this, since the control boxes aren't available anymore. But I don't see posts from anybody on any forms complaining about this issue, and fixing a burned out control box would be fairly simple - I'd start by replacing the relay, then the three transistors. That would almost certainly solve it, and would be really cheap, so unless yours literally melted it's probably the easier thing to do.

3. The system is clearly R-12. I'm planning to convert mine to R134a so I can service it myself, but be wary for those of you that still have pressurized systems. R-12 isn't just bad for the environment (well, "badder"). It's also really bad for you - if you cause a leak by manhandling a coolant line it'll frost-burn you really fast. Be careful.

4. I don't know about others' installations but mine in particular was pretty half-assed. The wiring was all over the place and the ground was loose, which seems like a problem since the wiring diagram says it must be grounded before powered or it'll be damaged. Also my firewall penetrations for the coolant lines are bigger than they need to be and not sealed. If you have one of these systems it might be worth throwing some RTV around those holes at the very least.

5. On my system in particular I suspect the compressor was replaced at some point. The compressor that's on there is weird, and the wire to the clutch is... just sitting there. Like, it's just twisted around a screw hole. It's clearly not controlling the A/C clutch, it's grounded to the vehicle where it's attached now. I'm kind of surprised that alone hasn't burned out the control unit. But I obviously need to sort that out.