Stuck heater controls

[Black Bear Jeep (Dan44)]

I have an 08 JKU. I've had it about a month and now that fall is approaching I find my heater controls appear to be stuck. It won't divert the air to the windshield. Where would be the best place to look? I'm going to take it apart this afternoon.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Your problem is most likely the blend door actuator. Super common for them to fail on these Wranglers.

 

[Black Bear Jeep (Dan44)]

Your problem is most likely the blend door actuator. Super common for them to fail on these Wranglers.

I did my research on YT, more so to see how to open up the dash. Then to find if any others had the same problem. Turns out there is a cable on the back side of the knob that goes to control some vents. My root cause was a over loaded glove box - previous owners - and some papers fell down and got in the way of the end of the cable. The cable not moving ended up getting a kink in it. I straightened it and now the cable works fine, but now I have no heater motor. The fan doesn't work at any position. Work still in progress.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I did my research on YT, more so to see how to open up the dash. Then to find if any others had the same problem. Turns out there is a cable on the back side of the knob that goes to control some vents. My root cause was a over loaded glove box - previous owners - and some papers fell down and got in the way of the end of the cable. The cable not moving ended up getting a kink in it. I straightened it and now the cable works fine, but now I have no heater motor. The fan doesn't work at any position. Work still in progress.

That can happen. My wife managed to prevent her AC from working because of an overloaded glovebox.

 

[Black Bear Jeep (Dan44)]

I'm still trying to understand this. I fixed the bent cable only to lose power to the fan or controls. My only guess is somehow I blew up the resistor pack - because they need air movement over to keep cool. And I'm having a brain fart of the proper search terms to find a diagram on the net. All of the fuses I have checked are good.

 

[Black Bear Jeep (Dan44)]

I'm going to guess a loose connection. or a stuck motor. The resistor pack was pulled and tested to be good, .6 ohm, 1.2 ohm, and 3 ohms. Power was okay at the plug going to the resistor pack. Next I pulled the plug to the blower motor. I had voltage there as well. I rapped the bottom of the blower motor with the screwdriver I was using and tested it again, and it now works. But the fact that it didn't work yesterday is going to leave me with a doubt of how long will it work until I need to replace it.
Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Snowbird Tom]

Could be a dirty connection. If you’ve still got access to the connectors, use some contact cleaner on both ends of every connection,
Dab with dielectric grease and reconnect.

Make sure all the plug pins are seated in the plastic plugs too.