87 Vanagon Radiator fan not working

[ReallyBigRadio]

I'm a year into owning my Weekender. I love it!

Unfortunately, my radiator fan has stopped working. I checked the fuses/relays (both under dash & behind the rear driver side pillar). Hooked the fan up to a battery, seems to be working fine. I 've been searching through some previous posts about Rad. Fans. I tried using a jumper on the plug, but all I get is clicking behind the headlight, which I'm assuming is the resistor everyone keeps talking about. I'm a greenhorn when it comes to both VWs and electrical work. If any one could advise me, I would sure appreciate it.

Chris

[MarkWard]

Did your van come with Factory AC? Second, at a minimum you need a 12 volt testlight or a Voltmeter. Do you have either? The resistor should not click. More information will help.
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[crazyvwvanman]

It sounds like the fan ground wire is bad at the hidden end under the dash. The problem is probably not your resistor since the resistor is not used in high speed fan mode.

Mark

[danfromsyr]

are you SURE it's not running?

mine barely if ever really runs.. I mean it does but it takes alot of heavy driving or sitting to make it come on..

easy way is to pull the lower grill, unplug the Rad fan T-stat plug and with a heavy insulated wire jump 2 contacts inside the rubber plug,
this bypasses the T-stat switch, and sends direct power to the fan, either in Low speed (with resistor) or High speed (sans resistor)

funny bit to note is that the fan has the same electrical load/draw on both speeds, the low just burns up supply power before it reaches the fan to lower it's power & speed.
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[ReallyBigRadio]

Yes, It came with factory AC. I have both a test light and a volt meter. The clicking was happening when I was trying to jumper the plug. It sounded like it was coming from right behind the head light. I know resistors just restrict the flow of current, so there is no reason for it to be making any noise.

[ReallyBigRadio]

I'm POSITIVE it's not running. I have already tried the jumper on the T-plug method.

[ReallyBigRadio]

That grounds out somewhere behind the fuse holder right?

[crazyvwvanman]

The clicking is the high speed fan relay, mounted up high in the dash area not far from the resistor but on the other side of sheet metal from it. When you jumper the correct 2 pins of the temp switch wires the relay should click. The fact that it does click but neither high or low speed runs when you try all the jumper combinations for the 3 wires indicates the ground wire for the fan is not making a good connection.

The notion of there being the same load or draw on high and low speeds is simply false. Refer to Ohms law. Then notice the much larger wire to the motor for high speed, and the 50 amp fuse for high speed versus 30 amp fuse for the lower speeds, and check out the dedicated large power feed wire right from the battery to the high speed relay and only used by high speed.

Mark

[larrytrk]

Same problem, redid ground, no more problem.
Thought I needed a new fan motor , was very happy I didn't.
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I Hate BAMBI!
87 Westy full camper "Bluie" aka-"busturd"
JUST SOLD HER, WESTYLESS!
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[r.e.wing_fc3s]

and if you get the fan to work on 3rd stage (max high) but not 1st or 2nd jumper the temp switch connector at radiator across bk(terminal #3) & r/w(2)pull the upper grill/d.s. headlight and disconnect the 3 wire connector going into the resistor. jumper the r/bk(2) with r(3), fan should operate.

to test for 2nd stage which will only operate normally in conjunction with the a/c remove the relay in the 2nd row from the bottom 1 in from the far right. jumper terminals 4&8. if fan doesnt run bridge terminals at fan resistor r/bk(1) & r(3)

[ReallyBigRadio]

I will give it a shot this weekend. Thanks for all the advice!

[r.e.wing_fc3s]

BTW i grew up in KCMO. Nice to see some representation!

[HBNico]

Here's mine opened up. Heard the crunching when turning the fan manually.

[/img]

[Wonderous World]

Hey guys, can anyone help me locate the fan ground. I already jumped it from the temp switch, no go. Hot wired from the battery and it kicks on fine. Pretty sure it's the ground but not sure where to find it exactly.
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[Wonderous World]

Found it! I just wiggled all the grounds behind the dash until the fan started flickering on and off to locate it. Got it working now, good as new! No more in town overheating
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[ledogboy]

[Microbusdeluxe]

Go Westy (and maybe other vendors) sells a beefy fan ground wire set-up that you can add to the system.
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'69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig!

[designer]

My van's needle has never gone above the light. Not when it was a Waterboxer and not since the 2.5 conversion.

Yesterday i drove slowly through town and noticed it climbing at a rate not seen before. Kept driving and climbed a slow mtn pass and it went up past the light, 3/4 to top and light started blinking. 7/8 to the top and I pulled off and started looking around. This was about 11 miles and temp was prob 75 outside.

I went back to the overflow tank (behind the license plate) and coolant was present - same level as i've checked it, some bubbles coming up though. This was after about 2min probably. Checked the aluminum tank and it's full (today).

What i've done recently:
Installed new Resistor behind headlight (last month)
Tested at the switch plug by jumping - both high and low come on (today)
Installed local ground from fan to body (last month)
Checked coolant level (over and over)
Checked fuse 1 - good (today)
Checked the metal jumper fuse up at main relay behind dash - in tact (today)
Checked thick red wires coming into back of fuse panel - good (today)

Relay panel 3; coolant level control unit is not present but don’t know if it ever has been.
Relay panel 5 #53 is present. But if fan works when jumped this is functioning correctly?

Today after all the stuff I checked, I started her up:
Get the flashing light at key-in
I think I can feel coolant moving through the lines by the fan. Hoses are cool to touch. Hotter than blazes coming out of the tank in engine bay.
Needle slowly climbs up and past light while idling. No fans. Shut it down when gets over light.


I was going to try and check the main relay up by the ground tree but if the fan comes on the relay is good - correct?

My conversion was done less than 10k miles ago but it's been a few years.
It's factory A/C but has been disassembled for at least 10 years.

I have a Suby Conv with a green thermoswitch installed. I have a factory waterboxer switch as a spare - PN: 251 959 481 K that's black.

Could the switch be the culprit?
Are these two interchangeable with the different power plants?

How do you tell if the water pump is actually pumping? feel the flow in the hoses?

At what point on the gauge should the fans kick on?

So frustrating this thing.
Thank you as always.
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87 Syncro Westy : 2.5l

"It is that annoying, accelerating downhill so I can make it up the next hill in the same gear. Foot to floor hoping I can get out of the way of other cars getting onto the highway." - somebody on here around 2013.

[hardway]

The cooling fan switch senses the coolant temperature in the radiator. If the radiator hoses are cool then the radiator is likely cool also. I measure the radiator temperature (at multiple places) With an infrared thermometer. If for whatever reason you lack coolant circulation through the radiator the fan will not turn on.

To test the water pump turn on the heater. If heater output is excellent the the pump is good. It is a good way to shed heat from the coolant when necessary.

Subaru engines in a Subaru have coolant flowing through the heater at all times. Like most newer vehicles they use a blend door to control the vent temperature. When a Subie motor is installed in a VW a bypass circuit must be installed to allow the thermostat to sense the coolant temperature. The constant flow through the heater in a Subaru is what brings the hot water to the wax pellet in the thermostat.

[designer]

The only good thing about this is i'm streaming panic at red rocks and reverse searing a fat tomahawk. And sipping some sangria ...

Update: so i swapped the thermoswitches. Went and drove a similar route as before. Same result.

Needle hovering b/w top of light and the 3/4 tic mark on gauge for a while, then further up - then blinking light. No fan.

I read the above post (thank you) when I got home and turned the heater on and it's cranking.

My IR gun is toast so it didn't help as it's now in the garbage.

i have cleaned the ground from the relay and traced the other brown ground line out of the back of the fuse panel. It's firmly inserted in it's place in 'H'.

There's two red wires coming through the firewall both firmly attached to the relay. the black coming in from fire wall is inserted in 'H'.

The red/blue wire out of 'H' meanders around and ends up in a sleeve with the bk/y and r/w wires coming off the bottom of the relay.

Is the next thing to bench test the relay? But if it (the one above the grounding tree) was bad, would the jumper test at the fan not work?

I'm at a loss here.




Thank you.
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87 Syncro Westy : 2.5l

"It is that annoying, accelerating downhill so I can make it up the next hill in the same gear. Foot to floor hoping I can get out of the way of other cars getting onto the highway." - somebody on here around 2013.