riggs58

I have dual cooling fans and what to rig up a manual fan switch to turn on both fans simultanously. I'm just going to ground the relays, as most people suggest, into one switch. What gauge of wire and what kind of switch rating should I use? Should I also install a fuse? Thanks

MdFormula350

i would use like 8 to 10 guage u want heavy wire like the same size as the power wire for the fan. i would also use a fuseable switch, we dont want any fires!

breathment

if u are just going to ground the relays, then you'l be fine with 16 guage. Im using 18 guage wire for turning on one fan. all it has to be able to handle is the coil in the relay, and in my case the lighted switch.. the factory ground wire coming off is like 18 guage. but just make sure u ground the coil ground for the relay

riggs58

Thanks!

igotslicksNchix

i need help! when u say ground the relays what do you mean???

breathment

this might help

riggs58

Grounding the relays simply means taking the proper wire coming out of the relays (green with white stripe) and then attaching it to the body of the car i.e. grounding the relays. This alone will cause the fan/or fans to come on automatically. To manually control the fans you have to have a switch. To do this, you will have to splice the wire (green/white stripe) that is coming from the relay and wire it to a switch. Then connect a wire from the ground terminal on the switch and connect that to the body of the car, thereby completing the circuit of the switch. You will now be able to manually contol the fan/or fans. You could have one switch for each fan or one switch that controls both fans simultanuously. I personlly have the latter. I have had no trouble wiring my fans this way but please check your application before wiring. There are many posts on the manual fan switch; just check the board archives. Good luck.

igotslicksNchix

i will try it! my fans wouldn't kick on today when the car was parked at 240*! i hope this works, if not, then i'll have to wire them directly to the battery (i bought the in-line fuse and all to do this) wish me luck! i'm goin in.....ps: "coming out of the relay" is this after the fans past the thing the fans plug into???or either one?

dans82bird

ALWAYS use a fuse

riggs58

Oh, by the way, make sure you find a good ground for your fans. They won't come on unless you do. It took me several times to find one.

riggs58

I will go into detail how I did it to help you out. First I located the relays ( I have an '87 Iroc with dual fans). Both my relays are located by the battery. There was one relay directly beside the battery (in back of the inside passenger headlight) attached to the body of the car. The relay had the number 10038311 on it. On my car this relay alone control both fans. The other relay was directly in front of the battery, same number on it. I had to remove the battery to see it. This relay controls the passenger side fan on my car. I left this relay alone since I wanted both fans to come on at the same; therefore, I spliced into the other one. Now I took the relay I wanted to work with, the one beside the battery not in front of it, and found the wire with the green/white stripe coming directly out of the relay and cut it, allowing 3 or 4 inches to work with. Then I stripped the end of it and attached another wire to it so I could wire it to a switch inside the passenger compartment. I then took another wire and attached it to ground terminal on the switch and wired that to the body of the car. I found a bolt underneath the automatic gear shift cover plate and attached the wire there. Thats pretty much how I did it- pretty straight forward. I just done it as simply as possible as most people on this board tell you to do. It took me some time though to get to the location of where I wanted the switch. Before you wire it all together, however, make sure your fans actually do work. Just cut the green/white stripe wire going out of the relay or relays, whichever one you want to test, and ground it the body of the car, be sure to find a good ground though. Again, this is how I did it. I don't know if this wiring procedure is accurate for every camaro. I'm also not sure the way I wired it requires a fuse or not (I didn't use one) . Be sure to check your application before wiring. Maybe someone can tell what fuse rating to use if you want to have one. Good luck. :rockon:

Matthew91-Z28

since I disconnected my foglights, can I connect the wiring that used to go to the lights to the fans to use as a manual fan switch?

igotslicksNchix

welp, been looking at my options and i bought an inline fuse block for 2 bucks at autozone, and a 15 amp fuse, the switch i bought handles 15 amps. i think i might go before the relays and just go right to the point with grounding the negative wires and wiring the fans to the battery via the fuse/switch. no guesswork, except figuring out witch is positive and which negative. anyone know?

riggs58

Thats a good question Matthew; I wish I would of thought of that. I dont know if that would work since the amperage of the fans might differ. But that idea is definately worth looking into.

breathment

probably not, since the fans work by grounding out the ground wire coming from the coil in the relay.. im not sure if the fog light switch works the same way or not. but thats assuming that u want to use the exsisting wiring.. if u run ur own wire to the switch from the relay, to a ground. it will work just fine..

igotslicksNchix

what side is the battery on in your car? mine is on the drivers side...

riggs58

Mine is on the passenger side. How are you coming with the fans so far. Got em working yet?

igotslicksNchix

well, i saw the driver's side kick on today while testing my thermo, btw thats not my problem, probably pump as suspected! so i do know the fans function "properly", personally i think they should both run, just to be safe. gotta find that damn green wire!

Matthew91-Z28

Just make sure I got this right...wire from switch to relay and from relay to ground? Or from switch to relay and from switch to ground?

breathment

take a look at the diagram above.. and see where it says "wire manual fan switch here" u are gonna wanna wire ur fog light switch in there. so the BEST way to do this, is to take a wire, and connect it to the ground wire coming off the relay, the only small black wire, ( not the black wire with the red tracer).. and then run that added wire to one side of the fog light switch, and for the other terminal of the foglight switch just run a wire to ground.. pretty much what u want to do.. is ground the small black wire coming off the relay.. and that will turn the fans on.

Matthew91-Z28

You rule...sometimes I need it spelled out.