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Skip426 · 07-11-2013, 07:59 PM

Third attempt at the photo. OK then I got it third times a charm. I'll read up and see what I have to do to get the scan through, as a pdf. file , if I can't figure it out ; which is entirely possible ; I'll take a picture and put it through.
Looks like I've found another spot to dust, under the dash. I'll see if the DW will do that.

Skip426 · 07-11-2013, 09:53 PM

You may already have this info, not very good from a location of parts point of view.
Doesn't even show the vacuum pump or it's power source.

stink · 07-11-2013, 10:17 PM

I have an 02' discovery and they might be similar. Under dash just to the left of radio there is a 8 or 10 pin connecter. This supplies power to ac blower and the large wire is burnt or a burnt connecter in the shell that may be your power loss. There is a group of relays just in front of ac/heater just laying ther. One powers ac blower. Try wiggling and tapping relays to see if blower starts. I hope this helps.

JMA1181 · 07-16-2013, 01:48 PM

We have checked and checked and checked and still have nothing. We have checked all fuses and all relays, all fuses check out and you can feel all relays click as if they are working. I am at a stand still on this as I have no idea why it is not working. We even took apart the slide control panel on the dash and nothing is burnt on it and everything is working on it, including the light that we can not get to light up, I am assuming the blower has to come on before the light will come on. We did jump the blower and it works just fine. Any other ideas out there? The other guy mentioned that there may be corrosion on the battery wire itself but we have not checked that as of yet. I think it has to be something simple we are overlooking. Everything worked just fine until we replaced the batteries and it hasn't worked since. The problem has to be coming from the back somewhere with the batteries being changed, just don't know where as nothing visually seems out of place.

Skip426 · 07-16-2013, 03:52 PM

If you have voltage to the back of the heater control panel and through to the fan switch and out of the fan switch to the resistor block and you powered up the blower motor, ( did you use the blower motor's existing ground when you tested or supply power & ground ? ) I'm scratching my head too , I'll keep scratching and see if I can think of anything you may have missed.

stink · 07-16-2013, 05:18 PM

One suggestion, a relay can "click" and not work. The contacts may be burnt. There is one relay providing power to the blower, why not try switching some? I think the resistor pack you have shown is one the ground side of the blower, I think. I would check for power to the resistors with a test light. If the light does not come on with the fan switch on low or medium then try hooking the ground lead of the light to power. This will check for grounds and don't worry, you will not short anything out that way. The resistors are not used on high speed and if the fan switch is on high you may not get any power, grounds to the resistor. Did you check the connecter just below and to the left of the radio? My discovery's fan quit when the large wires terminals burnt. May be a 10 g white with red strip wire.

VisionEdge · 07-20-2013, 07:39 PM

Any progress (or luck) JMA1181? I have just discovered the same symptoms in my 2000 Fleetwood Southwind. Blower doesn't come on and AC light doesn't light up. I did find the inline 10A fuse off of the AC control panel, but it was fine. I couldn't identify which fuse was for the dash AC on the fuse box under the dash or the one under the hood. Anyone know? Seemed like the wiring harness was getting power, but I need to look again with the wiring diagrams posted here. Maybe the AC control panel itself is bad?

JMA1181 · 07-22-2013, 05:34 PM

Visionedge, I spoke to Fleetwood and they said rarely does the control panel actually go bad, I pulled mine apart and tested it, that is not the problem. I did sign up for a paying group and have printed out some additional information but have not been able to take a look at it. I will try to dig a little deeper into the problem this week.

I had a breakdown on the side of the road this weekend and had to have a tech come out, my engine completely shut off while driving down the road and it would not restart. They had a fee that covered the first two hours. Once he diagnosed the no run, no start problem and fixed it, I asked him to work on the dash ac since he was already being paid for two hours worth of work. He didn't fix the problem or provide me with any additional help. The engine shut off at speed because I blew an ignition fuse.

VisionEdge · 07-23-2013, 09:09 PM

JMA1181, I got my dash AC back up and running! Here is what I did to find the problem:

Tested the inline 10A fuse at the AC control panel from both ends to verify proper voltage.
Tested both wiring harnesses on the back of the AC control panel for proper voltage.
Checked the fuse(s) at the fuse box in the cab at the driver's feet.
Unscrewed the kick panel in front of the passenger's seat.
Tested the inline 10A fuse by the blower motor (at passenger's feet) from both ends to verify proper voltage.
Tested the 40A fuse for the AC system in the power distribution box.
Bench tested the relay by the blower motor using the following instructions: Part 1 -How to Test the Ford 4 or 5 Pin Relay.
Tested two AC related relays in the power distribution box under the hood. One relay is for the AC blower motor and the other relay is for the AC compressor. (This is where I found my problem, a bad relay, after a few rounds at it!)

It took me a few rounds to find the problem relay because when I first tested them, I was just swapping them out with the relay for the headlights and it appeared that they all were good (the headlights worked - parking, low beams, high beams, etc.).

I also tested a relay for the Power Chassis, but I knew my swap test in the headlights slot was NOT valid because when I put them all back (apparently in different slots) the engine wouldn't start. In fact, only 1 out of the 4 would get the engine to start, so that one remained in the Power Chassis slot! That is when I started to the bench test the other 3 of them and one of them definitely seemed to be bad (I set that one aside).

I then replaced the remaining 2 relays that seemed to bench test ok (but wouldn't start the engine) in the AC Blower and AC Compressor slots. I cranked the engine and tested the AC and it was blowing (cold) again!

These relays all had the same part number on them so I would think they are interchangeable, but maybe the 3 that would not start the engine are partly bad? I don't know, this part still doesn't make sense to me! Of course the headlights did not work without a relay, but for safe keeping I put the bad relay back into the headlight relay slot (until I could get to the auto parts store tomorrow) and the headlights seem to work fine with the "bad relay." Weird!

Aren't the relays basically electronic switches? Don't they either work or not? This last part does not make any sense to me. If anyone wants to chime in and explain what I was experiencing, I would very much appreciate it!

stink · 07-24-2013, 01:10 AM

have you ever walked into a room and tried the light switch? If it does not work the first thing you do is work the switch a few times. The contacts in the switch are very similar to the contacts in a relay and by "excersizing" them they may work for a little time. I also found some heat damage in the relay sockets and corrosion setting in. By unplugging and plugging relays into said sockets this may clean some of the corrosion off and allow relay to then work. Did you find your relays just hanging there in front of the a/c box? that is where mine are. I am happy you found your problem

Skip426 · 07-24-2013, 08:44 AM

There are internal contacts in the relays, and on some ( 5 pin in particular) there is a path for power to flow through when the relay is not energised. When installed in a headlight circuit, the un-energised path could be for low beams, the energised for high. In another application the un-energised would be , off , energised ,on. When in the headlight circuit the defective relay , would still light the low beam and because the electromagnet will not switch the contacts to the other power path ( high beams ) it would appear the relay worked because the lights are still on , but the high beams are not on just the low. If the electromagnet works and the contacts are bad then the low beams would go out, and the high beams would not come on.
In the case of a sticking relay, the contacts , arc and weld themselves together, and continue passing power after the electromagnet is de-energised.

VisionEdge · 07-24-2013, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stink

have you ever walked into a room and tried the light switch? If it does not work the first thing you do is work the switch a few times. The contacts in the switch are very similar to the contacts in a relay and by "excersizing" them they may work for a little time. I also found some heat damage in the relay sockets and corrosion setting in. By unplugging and plugging relays into said sockets this may clean some of the corrosion off and allow relay to then work. Did you find your relays just hanging there in front of the a/c box? that is where mine are. I am happy you found your problem

I had one relay at the passenger's feet behind the kick panel by the AC blower. That 1 was fine. I also have 6 relays in the power distribution box under the hood. The power distribution box included 1 AC System Relay and 1 Blower Motor Relay. My bad relay was one of those in the PDB, but I lost track which slot it was originally in when I was swap testing them. I guess the the damaged/corrosion light switch analogy does make some sense to me as it could cause the relay to work intermittently.

VisionEdge · 07-24-2013, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skip426

There are internal contacts in the relays, and on some ( 5 pin in particular) there is a path for power to flow through when the relay is not energised. When installed in a headlight circuit, the un-energised path could be for low beams, the energised for high. In another application the un-energised would be , off , energised ,on. When in the headlight circuit the defective relay , would still light the low beam and because the electromagnet will not switch the contacts to the other power path ( high beams ) it would appear the relay worked because the lights are still on , but the high beams are not on just the low. If the electromagnet works and the contacts are bad then the low beams would go out, and the high beams would not come on.
In the case of a sticking relay, the contacts , arc and weld themselves together, and continue passing power after the electromagnet is de-energised.

Your explanation makes perfect sense, but we tested the relay with parking lights, low beams, high beams and even turn signals with the other three. Everything seemingly worked fine when I stood in front of the motorhome and my wife tested each of them from the driver's seat. And I have a 4 headlight system, so it was pretty easy to check the low and high beams. Like I said to Stink, the damaged/corrosion relay may be working intermittently and that could explain what I experienced. I may just replace the other 2 relays (that wouldn't start the engine) @$12 each for peace of mind since I saved myself so much money

I hope JMA1181 is able to identify his problem soon as well. Patience, persistence, Google, a lot of sweat, and some great info from other iRV2 members can even work for those of us that don't consider ourselves that "handy!" Although the not handy part seems to be changing with each project. Thanks again to everyone for their contribution to my success on this!