I bought a new stock fan switch, and there is obviously something wrong, because the harnass will not plug into the new switch. I did a search, and some of the harnasses look different from mine. Is my harnass broke or what? This is how is was when i bought the car. The p/n of the switch is TS-82

 

Here is my harnass. Sorry the pic is a little bit blurry.
Edit: I didn't have my sig on. Its a 91 z28, L98

 

The wire you hold in your hand is for the tempature gauge. The primary coolant fan switch is on the front of the intake manifold. The switch you have looks either like the old style fan switch ie LG4 or the Heavy Duty fan switch located on the passenger side head above the starter motor.

 

I don't know of you can tell by the pic, but its the driver side head. My gauge is working. It sweeps when I start the car, but its dead after that. I was told that it was the fan switch that controls the temp gauge as well. Am I mistaking? What do I need then, is there some special sender? If there is, would anyone know the part number? Thanks

 

There are 3 temperature devices:

1) Coolant Temp SENDER. Installed in driver's side cylinder head toward the front between #1 and #3 spark plug. The pigtail for this device is the one you held in your hand in the picture above. This controls the temperature guage on the instrument panel AND THAT IS IT!

2) Coolant Temp SENSOR. Installed in front of intake manifold. The pictail for this device is a 2-pronged weatherpack connector. This device sends coolant temp to the ECM. Thus, it indirectly controls primary fan on/off in a dual fan setup.

3) Fan switch. Installed in passenger side cylinder head toward the rear between #6 and #8 spark plug. This device looks exactly like the one you pictured in your first post. This controls when the secondary fan (passenger side fan) in a dual fan setup turns on/off.

You said you bought a fan switch. The picture you posted is of a fan switch. The fan switch is in the passenger side head. You are on the wrong side dude. You are holding the pictail of the coolant temp sender ... not the pictail for the fan switch.

Tim

 

As I understand it, the difference between the fan switch sender and the temperature gauge sendor is that the gauge sender is a proportional device. That is, the continuity varies with temperature which is what you want for a dashboard gauge. The switch sender either has continuity or it doesn't which is good for turning a fan relay on or off at a preset temperature.

 

Alright, cool. I knew something wasn't right. I had bad advice from a friend. Thank you for setting me straight!

 

On my '87 I had to go through this when the tab for one of my senders broke off.... However...

On my IROC, the drivers side controls the fan, and the passenger side controls my gauge. The new bought sender was for the gauge and didn't make the gauge work. Same harness.

The black one you bought was for the fan on my drivers side... backwards from all i've researched.

 

Anyone know where I can get a pigtail for the fan switch originally questioned in this post? Mine is broken, and I haven't located anything in the local salvage yards. Thanks in advance.

 

The terminal on that coolant sensor looks remarkably similar to the one on my knock sensor. Maybe go under a later thrid-gen Camaro and cut the pigtail off the knock sensor. The knock sensors are screwed into the passenger side of the engine block.