Electrical diag with no tools on hand. XJ blower motor

I usually bring a small electrical tool kit when I travel for work. Didn't this year. What was I thinking? Trying to not buy any tools/parts that I don't need and I'm away from home for another 3 months.

Vehicle in question, 96 Jeep Cherokee with base HVAC. Over the last 85k I've owned this car the fan resistor slowly burned up to the point that I only had high speed. No big, this is my winter beater and I only use the fan to defrost the window on my way to work. The HVAC blower fan cut out all together the other day. I tried flipping the switch every day just in case and one day it randomly worked again. Today it died again.

The fuse is not blown and I cleaned the contacts. So I "should" be getting power to the fan.

When it was working turning on the fan showed a noticeable change on the voltmeter. Currently flipping the switch doesn't change the voltmeter. That leads me to believe that the fan isn't seized.

I'm thinking either the switch is faulty or the resistor went out. Will the full voltage leg of the resistor go out? What thinketh the hive?

This is super common on Jeeps.

My 1997 TJ only had high speed on the fan for a while and then started sending smoke through the vents. The connector had melted down at the resistor behind the glovebox.

I replaced the resistor and had to chop the connector off and replace it with female spade connectors going to the terminals at the resistor. Label the wires before you cut them.

Can you borrow a Philips head from the front desk to check the resistor again?  It's been over a decade since I opened up one of those, and it was on a Dodge ram, but I'm pretty sure the full power leg was actually a goofy "all circuits are now open" thing?

Make sure the fan can turn.  Motor's probably locking up.  That's a common cause of burned up resistor blocks and wiring.

A viscerally satisfying diag technique is to turn the fan on then hit/kick it and see if it moves a little.

Get a few paperclips from somewhere,  Use them to jump the resistor so the motor will theoretically see all 12 of those volts.   See what happens.

Or ask around at whereever you are (hotel, office, what-have-you) and try to befriend a maintenance guy who has a multimeter.  

Today was the first day above 15° so I finally sat down to trouble shoot.

Step 1: I unplugged the resistor
Step 2: The heat started working instantly
Step 3: ??? How does that work?

In reply to buzzboy :

The automotive gods have blessed you. Walk away and get a beverage of your choice. 

Without a diagram, high speed probably goes through a separate power source.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

A viscerally satisfying diag technique is to turn the fan on then hit/kick it and see if it moves a little.

Pretty sure that is called giving it the old "Fonzerelli" treatment ... hey !!!!

The HI setting on the heat bypasses the resistor completely. So unplugging the resistor shouldn't have changed anything?

Also notice, the blower doesn't have a relay. Chrysler didn't add that until the 97 refresh. Big yikes