my 84 t/a, even on a cool night of 45mph driving will reach about 240 in 5-10 minutes(sometimes it will then cool to 220) and then when i shut the key off, it tries to stay alive and then finally dies. I know i need to replace radiator hoses and suprisingly the air damn is there in mint shape and the waterpump doesnt leak so i assume its good. Im going to clean the radiator. Now my questions
this may sound dumb, but where is the thermastat?
how would i make a switch for the fan to turn on when either its at like 180 or even manually when i want it on?
Any other possible problem sources?
Thank you.

 

Hey man, there are no dumb questions. but the thermostat. Is right on top of your lower intake. If you are standing in front of the car looking at the engine. The right (upper) radiator hose gos and connects to the lower intake. Take off that hose and there is the thermostat. Now, to make a fan switch, like I did, just get some 5 to 6 feet of speaker wire. Cut the positive wire right at the fan, and run it back to the dash. You will have to go through the firewall, obviously, and the best place to do that is right under the master cylinder. There will be a black coil tube going through the firewall. Just cut into that and run it throught that. Buy a $0.50 switch and install it clean into your dash. Hook it up to both sides, and back in your engine bay, connect the other wire of the speaker wire to the positive battery cable. Done! Good luck man, BTW, you this is a GREAT cheep mod, to make your car run cool. My car runs 24/7 at like 160* or 170*. It is great. Later,

 

160-170 is too cold for these motors. If you have a single fan it is not controlled by the ECM, it is controlled by a switch on the passenger side of the block. This switch controls the fan relay which in turn sends 12 volts to the fan. You can purchase a fan switch from JET (costs 40 bucks) which will turn on at 200 and off at about 185. NAPA sells TWO different fan switches for these. They make one with a turn on at 215 and costs $19. As far as a fan switch, don't waste your time. Rapid changes in coolant temp will only cause excessive fuel comsumption and the resultant loss of MPG. If you are going to hardwire it, use the fan relay- don't use a switch to feed the 12 volts directly. The fan will pull 8-12 amps on start up and speaker wire is not the best choice for that. You need to find the wire that goes to the fan switch and just splice into that. Then run it to one end of a switch, the other end of switch to ground. This lets all the current required to run through the fan relay, and will still allow the fan switch to operate normally in case you forget to hit the switch.

 

Run the car for about 10-15min. Then feel the upper and lower radiator hose. If they are warm, the thermostat is probally ok. I use the "fail safe" brand thermostat, which fails in teh open postiion.

 

heres how i wired my fan switch....... and i still have the option of letting it heat up to 240 before the stock switch kicks in.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/tstrel.../fanrelay.html
~Tim