wildstar

So I've been troubleshooting my inop cooling fan; no power from the red wire going into the relay. According to the schematic, the red wire has a fusible link somewhere but I'm not 100% sure where it goes.

But I seem to have this extra wire by the starter:



The wire in question is the one that ends in the upper right of the photo. It comes out of a wiring harness, goes into a metal tube, and comes out by the starter. The wire with the elec tape is also red and connects to the hot side of the starter solenoid. It appears to have a fusible link on it but does not pass through the small metal tube. It rests right above the tube, specifically the fusible link, which is right next to the exhaust manifold. The other wire that comes out of the tube is pink, and connects to the other terminal on the solenoid.... I'm assuming this comes from the starter relay, and is used to ground it out when starting. So what should I do with this mystery wire? What secrets does it hold?

Here is a photo of the wires by the fan relay:



You can see the connector for the relay in the lower left of the photo. When I started, the wire on the right was connected to a 40 amp circuit breaker, which was wired directly to the battery. The other part of the wire had elect tape on it. The two red wires probably should go together.

I need to get power to the relay. I'm sure the solution is right in front me but I don't want to use trial and error.

wildstar

Sorry - '84 Trans Am.

wildstar

So 99.9% sure the wires by the clutch master cylinder go together. When I connect a jumper wire to my mystery wire and + on the battery, and I jump those two wires together, I get power to the fuse box.

It also seems like my mystery wire is in common with the heater fan relay. I'm thinking that the fusible link coming from the starter must go to a terminal somewhere, and the terminal powers the fuse box, cooling fan, and heater fan (high). Although the wiring diagram looks different. But I think I need to somehow test the fusible link and probably replace it....

But I'm still not sure what my mystery wire is for......

wildstar

According to my Haynes schematic (shown upside down), the mystery wire once went to the alternator.



At the very bottom, you can see the two fusible link wires coming off the starter solenoid. One wire goes directly to the fuse box, through the C100 connector on the firewall. The other one goes to a terminal, somewhere, and then branches out to the alternator, radiator fan relay, heater blower, etc. The cable from the battery to the starter must have been replaced at some point, and it now has a 10 gauge wire going directly to the alternator. So the red wire is no longer needed.

So I'm thinking at least one but maybe two of the fusible links are bad, so my next move will be to remove the starter and inspect them. Not looking forward to replacing them. I guess they're supposed to be soldered in place.

OBTW, one of the starter bolts was hanging by a thread and I could wiggle the starter with one hand. So I'm glad that my search lead me there.

wildstar

So I removed the starter and found that one of the fusible links had been cut-off. Originally, both fusible links were crimped onto a single connector. The remaining fusible link was pretty shot so I decided to replace both. I crimped the mystery red wire onto the other link. I know you're suppose to solder them, but there's really not enough space in there to do a good job. I was able to find 16 gauge fusible links at Napa. They were a little difficult to install because of their shape, but I was able to make it work. I also routed the wires through the metal tube.



I then crimped the two red wires together by the brake booster and.......

Now the fan won't shut off.

Even though the ECM is removed and the coolant temp switch in the head is disconnected, the relay is grounded out. How could this happen?

I traced the brown and white wire from the relay, which goes into the harness and I'm assuming to the ECM that isn't there. So now I need to figure out why that wire is grounding out. I suppose I could bypass it, but I want to use what's left of the existing harness as much as possible.

My old Chilton's manual has actually been quite helpful in tracing the wiring harness through the car.

redneckjoe

you might find some info in these diagrams?
http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=19

wildstar

Correction, it's the green wire that is grounding out. The brown wire is hot.

wildstar

I still can't figure out why the green wire is grounded. I feel like just bypassing it and being done with it.

According to the schematic, the green wire goes to the ECM. There is a green wire at one of the two ECM plugs. When I test it, I get nothing. It also seems like the fan operation is sporadic.... As in sometimes, it's always on. Other times, always off.

The only other possibility I can think of, is that the wire is damaged inside the harness, and grounding out on something.

wildstar

Progress.

Reason the fan was always on is because my A/C was switched to ON. Fan shut off as soon as I switched it over to heater.

The cooling fan relay has two paths to ground, the A/C switch and the coolant temp switch on the PS head. The green wire from the relay runs to a connection near the heater core connections. The plug looks like this



As you can see, my plug is a little fried, but still works. It seems to supply ground to the heater blower motor.... heavy gauge black wire.... that's what caused it to melt.

You can also see the two green wires going into the plug. One of those green wires goes to the relay and the other, according to my Chilton's manual, goes directly to the temp switch. It does not run through the ECM. Well, my temp switch is unplugged and the plug is missing.

I've read that the temp switch runs through the ECM, which grounds out the relay. But my car is an L69, so I'm wondering if it's wired differently?

Anyways, can somebody please take a look at their temp switch and tell me where the wire goes into the harness? I need to find that wire so that I can re-connect it to the switch.

Tired. Going to bed. If I can't figure this out by tomorrow, I think I will just tap the green wire and be done with it.

willexoIX

The green/white wire, should go to a temp switch in either the passenger or drivers side head, inbetween 2 cylinders. That wire "should" run back to the firewall, and be connected to your fan relay as the ground trigger.

Not 100% positive on your 84, but thats how most of our fan relays are run. If you connect that green wire to ground, your fan will come on with the car.

Another option is to get a $20 adjustable fan controller from one of the parts stores or elsewhere. Its super simple. Run that green wire from ground, into the fan controller, than into the green wire for the fan relay. I have had my fan controller for about 3 years with no problems or complaints.

If the plug is missing off the green wire, you may be able to put a female spade connector to reconnect it to the temp switch.

Also, you may want to replace that connector by the blower before it takes out all those wires.

wildstar

The temp switch on my car is round and won't take a spade connector. But I bought a replacement plug with pigtail from NAPA, it's slightly oval shaped and squeezes off an on. A lot of the original wiring has been hacked. The two green wires from the connector go into a harness behind the engine, one wire goes to the relay but the other doesn't seem to reappear.

So I think I could wire my plug into the green wire at that connector and it should, no it will work.

Agree, I need to replace that connector.

willexoIX

You should be able to get a female spade onto the round piece until you can get the proper connector. We arent talking male spade connectors. If you tweak the female spade with a small flathead you can open it up some to fit on the sender.