Date:         Tue, 17 Jun 2003 10:11:12 -0400
Reply-To:     SStones <sstones@IDIRECT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         SStones <sstones@IDIRECT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Radiator fan dead?
In-Reply-To:  <20030617133438.29970.qmail@web80513.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

If you have a Bentley, Follow along on page 97.116.
If not, I hope I'm writing this clearly.

First off, if it had worked on High and now isn't working, check Fuse S1.
It's responsible for power to both motor leads and the relay.
If the fuse is good, then pull the connector off the back of your
thermo-switch and check that one of the leads definately has power. (The
switch is on the back side of the of the radiator edge, near the bottom on
the drivers' side if it's the same as my 85). If your wires match Bentley's
it'll be red with white stripe that should be +12V.
If that IS +12VDC, (It should be, I can't imagine it burning out between
the fuse and the switch, nothing to cause it to constantly flex) jumper it
directly to the red with black stripe wire coming out of the thermo
switch.(With your fingers and hair AWAY from the fan blades.)  Vroom, there
goes the fan motor on low speed... Now jumper all three of those
thermoswitch wires together, VROOM high speed. If that works, you've proven
that the fan motor is working perfectly.
If the first jumper did NOT make the fan go on low speed, NOR did the all
three jumper make it go on at any speed, but the jumpered wires are
definately live +12VDC, remove the jumpers and leave the connector off the
thermoswitch (Safety).  You'll get back to it after checking the motor ground.
Okay, look.  I'm not saying you're stupid, but I'm gonna throw in this
warning anyway, it's just good practice.  "When working in and around the
fan, don't let your hair, fingers or clothes get in the blades as it might
come on at any time, if some previous owner has done something I'm not
accounting for".
There, now we're all insulted, but we have 10 fingers on each hand.  :)
Pull the brown wire's connector off of the fan motor and check that it is
in fact grounded. (Ground 30 is under relay panel...  That one over your
left foot where everything in the van (And your neighbor's porch light) all
seem to ground. If that connector seems to be a crappy ground, replace it
and it's wire to a better grounding point, hell make one up in the front of
the van and give ground point 30 a break.  :)
While you're at the fan motor's connectors, have a look at each of them,
make sure they're clean.

Okay, now back to the previous paragraphs.
If Jumpering Red/White to Red Black on the thermo switch DID get you low
speed fan, AND The all-three jumpering DID get you High Speed fan. Clean
the terminals and put the connector back on the switch.  Drive it around
the block to heat it up and then let it idle in your driveway up to the
temperature where you'd be darn sure the fan ought to be on.  If it is now
working again, the terminals just wanted a little cleaning.  If not, take a
break to let things cool back down for a while, have a beer, it prevents
frustration from overcoming the job at hand. Write me back (Or the whole
list) with the outcome of these various trials and I'll be happy to take
another crack at it.  But I'm expecting that we'll have found the problem
by now, and I don't want to suggest replacing a thermoswitch, rad-fan relay
or anything yet.
Best of luck, Dude. I hope the next e-mail you send us says it's fixed.
And Yes, you can directly apply 12V across the fan motor to test it, but
doing it at the thermoswitch connector is a safer distance.