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Wiring electric fans

nad

nad

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I've got some Windstar electric fans and I'm looking at wiring them. I've found some write ups about wiring them up with the Painless harness, but has anyone wired them up by hand? Anyone just wired them up to come on and stay on when the ignition is turned on? Or should they be set up to come on when the motor gets to a certain temperature. Any opinions on here?

Also, any ill effects of running open headers on the street?
 
nad said:
I've got some Windstar electric fans and I'm looking at wiring them. I've found some write ups about wiring them up with the Painless harness, but has anyone wired them up by hand? Anyone just wired them up to come on and stay on when the ignition is turned on? Or should they be set up to come on when the motor gets to a certain temperature. Any opinions on here?

Also, any ill effects of running open headers on the street?
Click to expand...

doooood, I hate to say it, but SEARCH.. :p::haha: This has been covered a million times..

And you certainly don't "need" a kit.. it's just building a harness.. far cheaper to just buy the materials and make your own...

you can wire it MANY ways... a thermal switch is generally somewhere in the mix, as well as alternative on/off capabilites..

heres one of many diagrams kicking around...


4461wirediagramnew1.jpg
 
My opinion is that the fans should be thermally switched, and for people that go through water, manual override.

Running them all the time is wasteful. Costs power, fuel, and added wear and tear on the fan motors.
 
Alright, that's what I thought. Well I'm not an expert at wiring with relays. What type of relays, which wire to put to which lead on the relays, etc....

Also, I'm not sure how/where to put the temp sender in.
 
Anyone have any more in depth wiring diagrams or explanations on how to wire the relays and the temp sending unit?
 
I personally like the round GM relays, I (used to) grab them by the handfuls from the wrecking yards.

They have the wiring diagram printed right on top of them, and they use the weatherpack connectors, so pretty darn water resistant.

I'm not sure if anyone actually has done a "12V ignition to terminal A"-type wiring diagram, but it would be specific to whatever relay you choose to use. The above diagram will get you there. If you need talked through it a bit, I think I've got some old PM's with that info if you are interested.
 
dyeager535 said:
I personally like the round GM relays, I (used to) grab them by the handfuls from the wrecking yards.

They have the wiring diagram printed right on top of them, and they use the weatherpack connectors, so pretty darn water resistant.

I'm not sure if anyone actually has done a "12V ignition to terminal A"-type wiring diagram, but it would be specific to whatever relay you choose to use. The above diagram will get you there. If you need talked through it a bit, I think I've got some old PM's with that info if you are interested.
Click to expand...
I'm getting ready to do my Windstars too,I`d be interested too,if you don't mind.:laugh:
 
Darnit, can't seem to find the email traffic.

I probably should do a bit of a writeup on this, mine is already assembled, but I can probably piece together enough information to make it worthwhile. I've got some of the relays around. Of course, I only have dual single speed fans, I believe the Windstars are a bit more complex in this regard, but the setup is going to be very similar.

Not sure I'll have time, but I can try. Some of you might want to search further though, someone may have posted a diagram down to the connector pins.
 
I think the fans I have only have one speed, since there's only a positive and negative wire to each fan.

dyeager, I would like to see pictures and diagrams of what relays you used and how to wire it all up. Thanks.
 
I'll see what I can do in regards to pictures, etc.

It's very simple though. Quick course.

Battery 12V to one terminal on the relay. One 12V wire out from another terminal on the relay to the fan motor. These are the heavier wires. For lack of a better way to describe it, the way these are wired the relay keeps those two wires (internally of course) from making contact. This is what switches on the relay.

To actually command the relay to switch, you have 12V ignition (small wire) going to the relay, and then you have another wire on the relay that goes to your temp (or manual) switch. When the temperature reaches whatever temp the switch is set for, the switch grounds, which "tells" the relay to complete the batt 12V to fan motor circuit. So 12V goes from the battery, through the relay, to the 12V fan motor wire.

That's really all there is to it, at a basic level. There really is nothing complex about them, except if you start talking about wiring them to come on with AC, manual switches, etc., which just add a bit more to the wiring.
 
I'd like to add a manual override switch if possible. That seems pretty simple overall...


Is the temp sender operating as the actual switch too?
 
it's in mine too.. the only thing mine doesn't have is the relay #'s of 30, 85, 86 and 87.. simple enough..
 
You've got to differentiate between a sender and a switch. I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, so no intention to be condescending here. A sender can't be a switch, at least for what we are dealing with. A sender is not on/off, a sender basically changes resistance based on the temperature. For an example, you use a switch to turn something on, a sender to show pressure, temperature, etc., like the oil, fuel and temp gauges.

So with electric fans and gauges, the gauge *sender* has nothing to do with the fan operation, other than to show you about what temperature your fans should be on/off, if the gauge is somewhat accurate.
 
heres how I did mine. I got the wiring and relay and therm switch from JEGS and the switches from painless. The wiring diagram isn't exactly how I did it. Ive got two 3 position rockers. so each fan can run either on(with ign power)/off/on with thermo switch

FanWiringDiagram.jpg


DSC02189.jpg


DSC02197.jpg
 
Anyone have any other ideas? I'm still trying to get something together, and I haven't planned anything out enough to go buy materials to wire it up...
 
Can some one point me to a good switch? I dont want to go to Vatozone and get some piece of crap.
 
I mostly just need a supplies needed list. I understand the wiring diagrams completely, I'm just not sure what all I need to complete them. Like types of relays, switches, and the temp sender...

Anyone?
 
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