IROCZ28dan

My secondary fan was hot wired about a week ago to go on when key on, temporary fix for right now while it has been so hot. Yesterday it was in the mid 90s, noticed my temp gauge was rising fast...popped the hood, neither fan was working.

I pulled the primary relay connector out, checked for power. 12.5 volts at the feed, so i jumped that wire with the black/red wire and the fans did NOT turn on, usually they do when i have issues. Fuses are good. Is there anything else I should check out before condemning the fan motors? I find it hard to believe both would crap out at the same time.

86TpiTransAm

If your car is equipped with AC, you can turn the AC on MAX and when the car gets up to the temp that the primary fan normally kicks on, see if they come on. The way that the fans in our cars are wired up, they have two indicators that make the fan(s) come on. One is the temp sending unit so the fan obviously kicks on when the temp gets to a certain temp. The 2nd is the AC, when the AC is on the ECM will cause the fan(s) to kick on as well. These 2 methods are completely separate circuits but use the same relay, so if one fails the other should still work unless the relay is bad.

On my '91 there is something wrong with my temp unit that kicks the fan on so with the AC off, the fan doesn't kick on and the car tries to overheat on me. However, with the AC on the fan kicks on every time and I have no issues with cooling at all.

Other than that, just check double check your grounds and make sure they're good.

IROCZ28dan

my a/c was on when this happened. neither fan turns on. my secondary fan is permanently grounded, meaning it should turn on when the key goes on, and it doesnt.

power into the relay is only there when the fans are disconnected from the circuit, when i reconnect them into the circuit power goes away.

could you tell me where the fusible link is for the fans? ive looked and looked and cannot seem to locate it.

86TpiTransAm

I'm not positive where the fusible link is but there's a super easy test you can do to test the fan motors. The connectors at the fan are just a 2 wire connector, so just disconnect the connector and run a ground to one terminal on the fan side of the connector and a wire directly from the battery to the other terminal on the fan side of the connector and the fan will kick on if the motor is good.

It would be so much simpler and easier to test the motors first instead of chasing ghosts only to later find out that it was the motors after all. It would indeed be odd for both motors to go out at the same time but not impossible and not unheard of. I currently own 2 thirdgens and have found that nothing is impossible with these cars and strange things happen more frequently that you might imagine.

IROCZ28dan

i did almost that...just before it started to rain here, the connector going to both fans, its a 5 pin flat connector, i jumped the ground/power wires going to the fans and the primary kicked. the secondary did not, but i will disconnect it like you said at the fan and try it.

im getting all kinds of inconsistant stuff as far as readings go, because now i dont have a 12 volt feed at all coming into the fans.

IROCZ28dan

instead of disconnecting the fans i eliminated the circuit out of the relay entirely by jumping the relay's switch power feed to the fan power...on both the primary and secondary fans it worked.

i then traced the main power feed back to a 2 into 1 splice...the 1 wire (orange, 10-12 gauge) went to a connector that looked like this:


the wire coming out of the connector was considerably smaller in gauge (red/black 14-16 gauge) and ran to a 4 way splice coming from the battery positive.

the connector was melted together, so unfortunately the only way to separate it was to pull the wires out of the ends.

any ideas on where to find a weather pack like the one above? i can only seem to find a female end in parts stores.

86TpiTransAm

Which parts stores did you check? Do you have Pep Boys there? I work for an auto parts store (O'Reilly Auto Parts) and I find that even though Pep Boys is crap for the most part, the one thing they do have is alot of connectors that the other parts stores don't have.

Other than that, you may end up having to hit the salvage yards.

IROCZ28dan

pep boys was the store that only had one side...

i think for the time being i will just put a blade connector in place instead of using that style.

JohnyP

iTrader: (3)

i dont know if you fixed your problem yet...but my 92 had the same problem it turns out it was the relay where all the stuff goes into (black little box like thing) and i ended up getting a new one with better connections and nicer housing from the junkyard and bingo...works like a charm

IROCZ28dan

problem is fixed. i replaced the connector i posted a picture of with a temporary blade style...now i just need to order the proper weatherpack connectors/pins. i was sent a link for a place called eficonnection. they carry what i need.

86TpiTransAm

I'm just throwing this out there because I honestly can't say positively what caused that connector to melt like that but if I were to make a guess I would say that direct wiring the secondary fan to come on with the key probably did it. Just something to think about.

jimdutro

iTrader: (1)

Irocz28dan, Summit carries the weather tight type connectors also, same as factory type,they may be cheaper. I am buying some for my fan conversion.

IROCZ28dan

i had thought about that. but all i did was take the connection from the fan switch on the side of the block that comes on at 2 million degrees, and ground it, which is effectively all that switch does when it reaches temperature.

i think a lot of what made it happen was the fact that the car sat for a week and a half with no action, in 95+ degree heat...then me starting it up and taking it out, with that fan on immediately. i dont know, its working now, made the trip to and from work in the heat, 94 miles round trip, a/c cranking...ill keep an eye on it.

i appreciate all of your help.