Radiator wiring

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:24 am

Alright. I hit the road this weekend for a 3 hour trip. As soon as i hit a town and slowed to a stop at the light the car heated up pretty good. The fuse for the radiator fan was blown and as soon as i put another one in the fan turns 10 degrees and then burns out the fuse. I followed the wire up to the 'fire wall' and repaired any wire damage. After all that it still blows the fuse if i turn the key. Was wondering if there were some tips on what to look for at this point. Oh, ha ha and while fixing the wires I saw a few that had rotted out and patched them up. After I fixed the last one i saw my head lights flipped down. so now my headlight motors work.

The Dark Side of Will · Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:42 am

Have you checked the resistance of your fan? The motor may have burned out and require replacement.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:08 pm

that's what i thought it was but i was hoping there might be a relay or something along the wiring. The fan was recently put in but the kid i bought it from didn't lock it in properly and i expected that it was on it's way out. Thanks

The Dark Side of Will · Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:25 pm

The fuse supplies the relay, so the relay could be a failure path to blow the fuse.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:30 pm

so i should get a new relay first (cheaper) and go from there. wires are all tip top now and my last roomate decided he liked my tools alot when he skipped out so i don't have a voltage meter right now. I'll get the relay and see what happens from there.

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:57 pm

Relays at worst are a short circuit (thats there job) so really, it cant be the relay thats bad. It could be but there would have to be a fair bit of physical damage to create a short.

The Dark Side of Will · Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:59 pm

Since the fan isn't energized when he turns the key on, it's either a wiring fault or the relay...

Unless it only blew the fuse hot, but doesn't blow it with a cold engine...

Xanth · Post by **Xanth** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:05 pm

Try turning the fan by hand, does it clunk? This happened on two of my Fiero's the magnets broke free and got stuck on the motor itself. The fan actually worked with 3 loose magnets, but was slow and got hot. Was able to repair one using JB-Weld on the magnets.

MTA method FTW :thumbleft:

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:06 pm

I guess he needs to spend $7 on a multimeter, so we dont have to guess.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:36 am

The fan blows the switch cold. I can go out there early in the morning and put a new one in before work and a second after i turn that ket the fan turns 10 degrees and burns the fuse. The fan turns fine but isn't the quietest.

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:25 am

Sure sounds like a shorted winding to me :salute:

The Dark Side of Will · Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:28 pm

Except that the fan shouldn't be energized with the engine cold. I think there's a wiring fault elsewhere.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:57 pm

I went out there on my lunch and followed the wires from the fan. one grounds out the other is spliced and goes directly into the fire wall. I'm guessing there used to be a relay between that? so if it's direct from the fuse to the fan and there's no splits in the wires then it's deffinetly the fan motor right?

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:11 pm

If someone cut the relay out, it better be a BIG mofo fuse--and a slow-burn at that--because that fan motor will draw 50+ amps when starting. I seem to remember an Ogre article claiming 100amp peak draw (spike) from a dead stop.

I'd say someone fucked up. It might not actually blow a fuse when you're on the highway because the fan's spinning already, and doesn't draw as much.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:20 pm

well that's if the relay was in the same line from the fan to the fire wall. I'll check from the firewall when i get home. Oddly if thatwas the problem then I don't understand how it ran for the past month before the problem started. where does the relay normally sit for the fan?

Fastback86 · Post by **Fastback86** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:34 am

Right in front of the driver's headlight.

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:13 am

alright there has deffinetly been some bypassed parts. The fan has 2 wires one that grounds out and the other that had been cut. It looks like it went to a bar with 2-3 other wires that pluged into something that's not there. It doesn't look like a bar that goes into a reylay because it's too long. The fan wire was spliced in with a smaller gauge brown wire with the white strip (power) and that goes directly to the fuse. I don't understand how it would have taken this long till it burnt out? It ran constantly when i turned the key and have a feeling it just over worked the motor untill it blew.

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:48 am

The bar is likely the speed resistor for the fan.

God knows what they've done.... I'll try and dig up that Ogre article; he's got schematics

teamhavok2 · Post by **teamhavok2** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:54 am

awsome because the chilton tells me jack. on there diagram it shows a line to the fan then back to the fuse.

Mach10 · Post by **Mach10** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:54 am

Crap... Ogre only has the diagram for his dual relay conversion... Which might actually help out seeing as you need to install the relays. Problem is, his schematic assumes that you already have the existing pinouts for the inputs.

http://home.comcast.net/~fierocave/fans.htm

I've got a decent set of full schematics at home. Trouble is my home PC took a dump on me last night, so I have no good way to get it to you before tuesday.