I am new to this message board, but I did a search and really didn't see any articles that could help me. (lots that tell you how to make a switch for the fan, or buy aftermarket controllers and such.)

I just bought a 1992 Camaro RS last week with the 305 TBI engine. One of the previous owners decided to make a fan switch, but it is rigged pretty bad (the wire that leads to it almost looks like a lamp power cord). It leads from the center console and sits with it's wire by my emergency brake handle. It also gets super hot after the vehicle runs for a while, and smells like burning electric tape inside my car. The car has a single fan which is totally controlled by the switch. I am also afraid one day I will forget to shut it off and come out to start my car only to have a dead battery!

My question is, how can I remove the switch, and either have the computer control it, or have it switched on when the car is started, but shut itself off when the ignition is off. Preferably without having to buy any parts yet (I have lots of wire at my house I can use to fix it).

Thanks in advance!

 

lamp cord, in my profession that the bane for my existence, its amazing there aren't more house/building fires because of what "handy" people use lamp cord for

anywho, trace the wire through the console. beings is a 92, i believe the fan is controlled by the ECM and there is no fan switch on the engine?, so somewhere under the passengerside dash you should find the other end of the wire, no if the ecm is still working, you should be able to splice the cut wire back together and everything will work. If the ECM does not work, you will need to take care of that issue.

 

Was laughing at your post, I have seen some "interesting" materials used for both houses and cars myself. This fan switch unfortunately happens to be one of them.

I will check out what you said, there is a wiring mess under my dash, I don't know why but I know that besides my car idling up and down a bit, which I know a few things that may be the culprit there, it runs good. I would just like to get it running decent for the winter, as next year I have lots planned for it, a transmission upgrade, axel upgrades, posi, rear end gear upgrade, 350 swap, and whatever other plans I can afford to do.

You call them problems? I call them character! :P (Line I used with my girlfriend for my car.)

Thank you very much, appreciate the advice. Going to take a look at it today.

 

Your fan should be controlled through a relay AND a temp switch installed in the passenger side head. It is likely some previous owner jury rigged this switch instead of conducting a proper repair or in some misguided attempt to run the fan continuously. Hopefully most of the original wiring is still in place.

Check for the temp switch in the passenger side head, low and between #6 and #8. There should be a single wire connector for it similar to the KS sensor pigtail. If you find this you can trace it back to the fan relay usually located on the DS firewall (don't know for sure about later models) with a continuity check.

The fan relay will have four connections, two of the wires will be an obviously larger guage. One of these is hot all the time, usually thru a fusible link from the starter, the other sends power to the fan. Of the two smaller control wires for the relay, one provides 12 V with ignition in run and one grounds the relay to engage the fan. This ground wire is the one that runs to the temp switch. When the switch reaches a specified temp it grounds to the engine.

If the pieces/parts aren't there on yours, I'd suggest hitting a junkyard and grabbing the parts you need. Should be real cheap. Even if you want to keep a fan switch inside it should still run through the relay and not carry the full amp load your rigged job is obviously doing. I'd still also maintain the fan switch in the head though-it can even be swapped for one that engages at a lower temp.

The single fan should be fine for a moderate 350. If you later upgrade to a dual fan you can still use the stock setup to engage the fans or to engage one, controlling the second some other way.

 

Alright, I spent all morning working on my car, they had the wiring totally rigged everywhere! This includes:

• Behind the dash
• Under the dash
• Behind the Radio
• Engine Compartment
• Trunk

I took all the old wiring out, rewired the stereo correctly (they used electric tape to splice in an old Equalizer that was in the car. Terrible hack job done on everything!). I also removed the old car phone that was in there which was amusing. There was about 20-30 pounds worth of weight taken out of the car today between all the wiring, and the car phone, receiver, and antenna connector for it.

The fan switch was wired like this. The switch was a white power cord looking thing and lead from the dash to the engine compartment where it was connected the negative fan connector, and the positive connector was cut from the car and spliced into the positive battery terminal. This could be why it was getting so hot, and probably was taxing the whole electrical system, they had no relay, no fuse, nothing. I wired it back to the car the way the factory had it, and presto! No more wire to turn on the fan, the car turns the fan on when it heats up and shuts off like it is supposed to. The coolant is brand new.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their advice, and I appreciate it. Car is running even better now, horn works now (was not working before), and I discovered the bottom of the car is fairly clean and did not see any rust spots on the floor boards or anything so things are looking good.

Thanks again!

 

Good deal.