I have an 88 Camaro RS with 2.8 V6 and T-5 trans. It's a long story but I got it in a circuitous way from a storage auction and it needs a lotta work.

The other day I was working under the hood and accidentally grounded the hot wire on the alternator. I thought I'd blown something, but the car started and seemed ok...except...that it runs like it has a vacuum leak and the cooling fan won't run. I'm thinking (this gets me in trouble all the time) that I may have blown out one of the fusible links...at least for the fan. I dunno if the MPFI has a "limp home" mode it goes into if the ECU isn't working or not.

I have an old OBD-I scanner and I was able to read the ECU coolant temp sensor (75C, 167F, but the car hadn't been running for half an hour) so it seems that's getting power and everything else seems to work (well, as much as there is...it's a pretty stripped-down model) except for the horn, but it wasn't working before the little incident with the sparks and stuff.

I found one of the fusible links by the power distribution block near the radiator core support, but I'm not sure how to go about testing 'em. Do you poke a test lead into the wire to test for voltage? I've done that many times on other electrical circuits.

Anyway, I'd appreciate some insight into this creature. I'd love to be able to drive it as an "economy car" instead of my Suburban...and besides, I like shifting and it's a fun car to drive.

Ohh...if there's a simple way to add a switch to turn the fan on when desired, I'd like to do that. I don't always trust fan controllers, although the one I got from Summit and put in my Burb seems to work fine.

Thanks,

RtR
http://www.chevyasylum.com/88Camaro/Welcome.html

 

Wiring in a fan switch is relatively simple, you can alternatively wire it to simply be on with ign pwr as well, as for testing the fusible links, I would just jam a test light into the wire personally. Did you have those problems(or run the car at all) before grounding that wire? I brushed against mine once while working on stuff and while I did get sparks, it didn't harm anything.

 

I got thru the fusible link thing ok, I think. I don't believe any of 'em were blown by the little sparking issue.

I had most of the problems before then, and I've addressed several of 'em. A couple of vacuum leaks (that makes about a dozen I've found), an incorrectly attached MAF sensor tube and last but not least, I gave up trying to fix the temp gauge in the instrument cluster and installed an aftermarket gauge. I'm finding that it runs about 210-230 which seems in line with the ECU turning the fan on at 220...but that's a hell of a lot hotter than I like to run motors. So I'm still looking for a way to switch the fan on demand. I have the schematics, but I can't seem to figure out which relay is the fan control.

It appears that if I were to apply a switched ground to pin B of the relay (Grn/Wht wire, circuit 335) it otta energize the relay and turn the fan on.

I'm guessing that the black box on the right in this photo:



is the fan control relay, since it's the only one with Grn/Wht wires on it.

Does this make sense to ya?

RtR
http://www.chevyasylum.com

 

For reference: I found thru experimentation that the fan relay is the center of the 3 relays on the firewall, driver's side between the master cylinder and the fender. Adding a parallel circuit with a switch to ground allows the fan to be controlled by a toggle switch.

The way I did it was to use a piggy-back wire connector to add a wire to the Grn/Wht wire, thru the switch and then to ground. I used an illuminated switch so I could see when I had the fan switched on.

This only works while the ignition switch is in the "Run" position.

RtR
www.chevyasylum.com