AC Blower fix
I couldn't tell you. All I can say is that it is not just a Hummer problem, as it also effected Chevy and GMC trucks. They saw that there was a design flaw so they made some changes. That is what they told me. They actually replaced the resistor and part of the harness. The best news is that I didn't have to hack my harness up and it didn't cost me a penny. Plus, in the off chance that it did happen again, there is documentation in the system so they can re-repair it. If I had done the repair myself then I would just be on my own. I just want to make things as easy as possible in the future. So far, everything on my truck, including repairs, is all the way it came from the factory or done at an approved GM dealer.
Great info...I took a little different approach. I cleaned the contact. I soldered a wire onto the one terminal only. I drilled out the melted plastic male connector and removed the wire. Then I plugged it back together with the wire running through the enlarged whole and connected it to the source wire.
Thanks. Just did this the same way as you.
I too, thank you for posting this fix.
I took a slightly different approach- First, I couldn't get the pigtail harness completely off my H3. There were two wires that routed into the side panel of the dash and I didn't want to take any more of the dash apart. I only dropped the glove box.
So, I decided to do the repair with the harness still attached and do the soldering inside the truck, below the dash.
I needed vise grips to remove the connectors, because they were melted together on one side. It was stuck together far worse than I expected. I removed the resistor. I then drilled holes in the finger tabs that plug into the socket.
My goal was to feed the wires thru the back side drilled holes in the finger tabs, which would hold the wire in place as I soldered the connection. This worked for me (see photos). It takes a lot of heat to get the parts hot enough for the solder to flow- so expect to hold your soldering iron in place for 30sec-1min before trying to flow the solder, with a cheap soldering iron. I was able to complete the job in 2 hours, and it has worked flawlessly for a week now.
I liked the idea that someone else had about drilling out the melted connection, and only soldering one wire thru the hole. While this is a good idea, there is a chance it could melt the connector again. I'm not sure if this was talked about, I didn't read all the pages- but root cause of why the connector melted, was due to the high current flow in that one wire resulting in excessive heat. If this connection was designed correctly, it would have heat dissipating properties- the connection should be ceramic or some other substance that could dissipate the high heat from the current flow in this line. The plastic connector could not dissipate the heat, resulting in melting. This is why simply replacing it will not only be costly, it will definitely fail again. I saw a brand new resistor in my auto parts store, and it has the SAME exact plastic connector - it was not redesigned at all.
So, while drilling out the connector and soldering this one line will work, however, the wire still being inside the connector may result in not have enough airflow around this connection to dissipate the heat, resulting in the connector melting. This fixes the symptom (the connection failure) but not the root cause (the lack of heat dissipation). If the connector melts again from the high heat, it won't ruin this connection again, since the line is now soldered, but it could ruin the next connection over that is still in the original connector. Keep your sense of smell aware for any burning plastic smell with this fix. I'm not saying it this melting will happen, but there is definitely a chance. I've worked in electronics repair most of my life..this is only my .02
So, this is why I went with the fix to solder all the wires. Completely getting rid of the orange connector, and cutting away part of the white resistor connector *may* give this connection enough air flow to dissipate the excessive heat. The jury is still out- I'll wait a bit longer before I am sure. My photos are attached..
I took a slightly different approach- First, I couldn't get the pigtail harness completely off my H3. There were two wires that routed into the side panel of the dash and I didn't want to take any more of the dash apart. I only dropped the glove box.
So, I decided to do the repair with the harness still attached and do the soldering inside the truck, below the dash.
I needed vise grips to remove the connectors, because they were melted together on one side. It was stuck together far worse than I expected. I removed the resistor. I then drilled holes in the finger tabs that plug into the socket.
My goal was to feed the wires thru the back side drilled holes in the finger tabs, which would hold the wire in place as I soldered the connection. This worked for me (see photos). It takes a lot of heat to get the parts hot enough for the solder to flow- so expect to hold your soldering iron in place for 30sec-1min before trying to flow the solder, with a cheap soldering iron. I was able to complete the job in 2 hours, and it has worked flawlessly for a week now.
I liked the idea that someone else had about drilling out the melted connection, and only soldering one wire thru the hole. While this is a good idea, there is a chance it could melt the connector again. I'm not sure if this was talked about, I didn't read all the pages- but root cause of why the connector melted, was due to the high current flow in that one wire resulting in excessive heat. If this connection was designed correctly, it would have heat dissipating properties- the connection should be ceramic or some other substance that could dissipate the high heat from the current flow in this line. The plastic connector could not dissipate the heat, resulting in melting. This is why simply replacing it will not only be costly, it will definitely fail again. I saw a brand new resistor in my auto parts store, and it has the SAME exact plastic connector - it was not redesigned at all.
So, while drilling out the connector and soldering this one line will work, however, the wire still being inside the connector may result in not have enough airflow around this connection to dissipate the heat, resulting in the connector melting. This fixes the symptom (the connection failure) but not the root cause (the lack of heat dissipation). If the connector melts again from the high heat, it won't ruin this connection again, since the line is now soldered, but it could ruin the next connection over that is still in the original connector. Keep your sense of smell aware for any burning plastic smell with this fix. I'm not saying it this melting will happen, but there is definitely a chance. I've worked in electronics repair most of my life..this is only my .02
So, this is why I went with the fix to solder all the wires. Completely getting rid of the orange connector, and cutting away part of the white resistor connector *may* give this connection enough air flow to dissipate the excessive heat. The jury is still out- I'll wait a bit longer before I am sure. My photos are attached..
be aware that if the part you removed was the resistor,its rarely ever the problem,,,its the connector, covered here a hundred times.
and btw the warning about the smell of plastic burning, hot, i had it!!so maybe the virus is getting to me,,oh no.
later
and btw the warning about the smell of plastic burning, hot, i had it!!so maybe the virus is getting to me,,oh no.
later
For those of you that are about to fix A/C resistor problem. It is very hard to souder onto the resister tooths. We have to Hummers and my son took about 3 hours on his. For Mine I told him to only consentrate on the Burnned Connection. So he cut out only the last connection and replaced the female side with a connector that clips around the wire and becomes a single females to that single male. (Speaker connectors). Avoid the trouble of soudering.


