I’m having a cooling issue I need some input from someone. I have a 1986 camaro with a 305, I did a complete rad flush, changed the thermostat, replaced temperature gauge and replaced temp sensor/sender. After all that it started to over heat and that’s when I realized the electric fan wasn’t kicking on, but if I turned the car off, and then clicked the key forwards 2 clicks, the fan would turn on. If I wired the fan straight to the battery, it would turn on, spin the fan clockwise, and cool down the temp. So I thought I had figured out the problem when I didn’t hear the fan relay click so I replaced the relay and rewired a new plug that plugs into the relay, but it still does the same thing, fan doesn’t turn on, engine starts to get hot, turn the engine off then click the key forwards and the fan spins COUNTER clockwise for about 10 seconds. Any ideas?

 

Welcome to TGO!
The Coolant fan relay is powered by a fusible link (orange wire) that's going to terminate at the starter, disconnect the wires at the starter to isolate circuits and check for continuity between the ring lug at the starter and the coolant relay, if no continuity then you probably have a bad fusible link, or since the fusible link stays hot from the battery check for 12VDC at the orange wire at the coolant relay. could be a coincidence that fusible link decided to fail, weirder things have happen.
If you have wires crossed it's possible that the fan motor will spin in the wrong direction, double check your wiring at the relay plug.



Wayback Machine (archive.org)

 

U talk about a cooling fan running in wrong direction. I have seen the results of that & it is not pretty when a fusible relay smokes & engine runs hot a slow speed.