Hello, I have an 86 camaro 305 4bbl that i bought from on woman on craigslist. I got it in the beginning of the month and i just finished replacing the valve seals, and head gaskets. I got everything back together and now i want to address my cooling system woahs so i can get this baby closer to being on the road.

What i know:

So the lady told me that her grandfather had jerry rigged a few things on the car. One of the heater hoses had three couplings of small pieces of hose making one full hose, as well as the cooling fan has been wired directly to an on/off switch mounted on the dash. The switch doesn't work and i cannot figure out how to get it wired back up the factory way. I found the original fan wires coming from the harness in the engine bay by the fan.

I had them hooked back up but the fan still didn't kick on when the engine got hot, so i put them back the way i found them and took some pics:





As for the inside wiring, they seemed to tap the wiring for the switch into a red wired connector near the fuse box. The red wiring hanging to the left was spliced into that connector hanging on the right. That wire on the left goes to the switch.

I have no idea where that connector is suppose to go. I looked around under the dash but couldnt find any place it would connect to. There is also another connector with an orange and white wire hanging to the left of the fuse box.


I just want to get the fan hooked up the way it was normally. Im not sure what these connectors are for, or if they are even for the fan. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Power for the fan comes directly from the battery via a fusible link (red or orange wire), and through the closed contacts of the coolant fan relay. A (BLK/red wire) connects power from fan relay contacts to the fan motor. Power for the relay windings comes from the ignition switch, through a 10 Amp fuse and a BRN wire . The ECM reads the output of the coolant temp sensor and provides the ground path (GRN/WHT wire) for the fan relay windings as needed.

 

Thanks, Im gonna check everything tomorrow. What about those connectors under the dash? Do they go to something, or should i just leave them?

 

i think the orange and white ones goes to the courtesy light mounted in the kick panel, which isnt shown and presumably missing. as for the red wire, that i dont know

 

Does anyone know where the 20 amp fuse for the fan is located? I removed the relay and it it melted and fried. The fuse is probably blown too but i don't know where it is.

 

go to HELM.com and buy yourself a factory service and repair manual,in it you will find the answers to any question you may have about your cars wiring.DO NOT be fooled by a "haynes" or "chilton" manual as they are vague at best

 

Fans, are quite basic they require a negative and a positve current. The positive needs to be fused. I would bench test the fan or fans doesnt matter which, to check that they work, then secondly they are bought on at a temp which the computer has set as default. Why it runs thru the relay. If your frying you relay you have wiring issues, as the fuse is the first to go, and your cooking your relay which is why the fuse is there to protect.
I saw this car on craigslist to. So start with the basics check your fans work!

 

Thanks for the help, i got the fan working. The relay wasn't melted, the connector terminal wires were just halfway pulled out of the connector, and what i thought was melted plastic was just greasy gunk. I pushed them back in and reconnected the fan. The fan turns on and off by itself now and works great. I ordered a new pigtail connector online so everything should be good. Thanks again.