Hey guys, I found this thing hanging up just above the starter solenoid as I was finishing up my tune up today. It's a 1991 305 TPI engine. The connector looks like just the one on the knock sensor, in fact it was coming out of the same wire loom. Not sure if it's supposed to be hanging like that or not. The car drives fine with no SES light. Any suggestions?

 

If theres one on the knock sensor then its the one that goes to the fan switch on the cyl head between 6 and 8 plugs.

 

Check the sender/switch that is at the back of the head on the passenger side. IIRC, that is the fan (high) temp switch.

 

Ok I went in underneath and I found what appears to be what you're talking about between the 6 and 8 plugs.



However I couldn't fit that connector in there to save my life. Is something else missing? Anybody got pics of what it should look like?

 

Oh and I just thought I'd let you guys know that this morning I let the car idle for close to 20 mins on the driveway and the fan kicked in at the usual 220 degrees. Granted that's a bit high but it's been doing that for as long as I can remember. I drove it to work this morning with no issues/idiot lights either.

I yanked the A/C out a couple years ago so perhaps that might've had something to do with it? I doubt it though, and for some reason I think that switch has been disconnected all along, although I didn't notice the dangling connector until yesterday.

 

In your first picture, part of the sensor it was plugged into is broken off and still in the plug. Thats probably why you couldn't get it to fit. Squeeze the flat tabs and pull that middle part out. You'll need a new fan sensor.

Not sure why your fans would still go on though, unless there's some secondary switch that works off of the coolant temp sending unit..?

 

Correct. need a new sensor. its prolly just running the primary fan.
Right now the second fan wont/shouldnt kick on unless he turns the AC on.. if it was hooked up the temp would kick it on.

 

you couldn't plug it in because the top of the switch is broken off and stuck in the end of the connector. I see a trip to the parts store in your future. I see I should have hit the refresh button before I posted. Oops.

 

Yeah I only have 1 fan running now, the driver's side if I remember correctly. But it's been running off of 1 fan for as long as I've been driving the car and the thing NEVER overheated. I always assumed that with the A/C yanked out it's supposed to run on only 1 fan, so I never addressed the issue. So you're saying both will run once I fix this?

No problem, I think I'll save that for a winter project since the car's not giving me trouble. Now I'm guessing I'll have some coolant spill out when I replace the switch?

 

Bump... just wondering about the last few questions.