my 2 cooling fans on my 87 iroc arent coming on,someone wanna explain to me how i wire a switch to them to turn them on whenever i want? im not good with electronics,thanx,later

 

ok heres what i did. warning this might be long. i went to radio shack and bough an automotive lighted switch. it is rated at 30 amps at 12 volts. then i went and got a whole bunch of red 10 gauge wire and a whole bunch of black 10 gauge wire. i have a single fan so i cut the ground and power wire to the fan a grounded the ground wire in the proper spot and soldered red 10 gauge wire to the power wire. i ran that wire into a switch inside. the switch has 3 ports on it: ground, load, and power. i ran the wire from the fan to the load port on the switch. i ran the 10 gauge black wire from the "ground" port on the switch to a suitible ground. for the power port i ran 10 gauge wire straight to the battery. this means that the fan will run with the ignition off if i forget to turn the switch off. the switch is lighted and in a very convenient place( i will try to get some pics tommorrow) so i havent forgot to turn it off yet. i just flip the fan switch on when the temp gets up to about 170* and off at about 160*. since you have dual fans you will just have to connect the two power wires of the two fans and ground both wires( or connect them and ground the single wire). it is very simple wiring. the only thing you might want to consider is if the dual fans are pulling more then 30 amps. then you would have to run a larger switch. let me know if you have any questions/comments.

 

finally a pic. this pic was taken during the evening with the fan on. i put the switch there because the previous owner had some switch there and so there was a hole to fill

 

I've been thinking about a manual fan switch, but I'd like to keep the original circuit operative in case I ever forget to turn it on so it'll still come on by itself. What is the amperage of the fan or do you know, I might put a fuse in there.
Anyway what I thought about was running a wire from the battery to a switch, then to the fan.
Do you think that would work ok?

 

Gents,
Do not f*ck with the fans with direct wiring, unless you are a qualified in auto electrics. Use the tech file that shows grounding the relay wire to earth. It works.

IMHO

 

I'm not certified and I ****ed with my fans ! It turned out pretty damn good actually... I have a degree in electronics engineering though... does that count ? hehehe

 

explain.

 

You don't need to be certified to mess with electric. You just have to be smarter than you're cooling fans.
Step one: read the tech article on fan switches(It is very informative)
Step B: Always disconnect the battery before you do anything to the electrical system.
Step 3: Use 10 gauge wire, and a 30amp switch.
Step IV: If it sparks, you probibly did it wrong.

Have fun and keep a fire extinguisher handy.
your pal,
nick

 

well.
the battery was disconnected
i used all new 10 gauge wire
and i used a 30 amp switch

 

If i had the power to make you a certified mechanic, I would. But untill then, have fun attempting simple projects w/o proper paperwork. If you have someone helping you, watch out for OSHA, they have strict regulations for that sort of thing. Just keep using that common sence *** so graciously gave you. And you should live a long healthy life.

 

What in the heck, they "***" out the word G0D. There is something wrong with a society that thinks of their higher power as a cuss word. I am speachless.: doh:

 

i'll take that as an official certification

 

Odyssey,
Yeah, I guess you qualify for super elec tech class 1.

My point was that for beginners, all you need to do is follow the tech article that grounds the existing fan relay through a switch. No 30 amp switch, no 16 gauge wire, no smoke, and about 30 minutes.

If you want to do it a different way that's fine, you need to accept that if I want to do another way, that's not the wrong way, just different.

But it is the best way!

 

I finally got around to fixing my secondary fan problem. It took about 5mins to do after I looked at a wireing diagram, and found the relay's. BTW, I am not a certified in anything, but I took electronics for a year at the JVS if that means anything.

(if you don't know much about relays, this might not make sence)
In my car the relays for both fans were together on the driver's side firewall. I think this setup is 88 and up only. The relay closest to the fender is for the passenger side fan. It has a small brown wire(ground of controll side), small gray wire(power on the controll side), a big orange wire(power on the fan circuit), and a big black w/purple stripe wire(To the passenger side fan) The second realay had small brown(same as above), small green(power on controll curcuit), big orange(same as above), and a big black w/brown stripe(to driver's side fan)

All I did was:
1:clip the small grey wire on the passenger fan relay(capping of the open end for safety
2:Use a small piggyback connecter to splice the relay side of the small grey wire into the small green wire for the driver's side fan relay.(remember the positions of the fans and relay's are switched.

THAT'S IT...2 SIMPLE STEPS.
Both fans now come on at 160*when the ecu turns the driver's side fan on. No wire, no switches and no bull****. That simple.

 

oh yeah, and I didn't even need to disconect the battery

 

.

 

brodyscamaro, you feel better?

 

MUCH better lol