What is it?

[Silver Surfer]

While looking at the power door lock assembly on my GM vehicle ('92 vintage)
I noticed a small, flat, rectangular, two-terminal device wired in series
with the lock motor. The vehicle's service manual indicates that this
device shuts off current to the motor upon overload or stall and will not
reset until power is removed from the lock circuit. Do you know what this
thing is?

 

[Dave Platt]

While looking at the power door lock assembly on my GM vehicle ('92 vintage)
I noticed a small, flat, rectangular, two-terminal device wired in series
with the lock motor. The vehicle's service manual indicates that this
device shuts off current to the motor upon overload or stall and will not
reset until power is removed from the lock circuit. Do you know what this
thing is?

Some sort of thermal circuit breaker, almost by definition. It might
be a snap-action device with a bimetallic contact, or it might be
something like a Polyfuse (a positive-temperature-coefficient
thermistor with a very sharp "knee" in its resistance-vs.-temperature
curve).

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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