Electric Cooling Fan Not Coming On When Hot

[Kellybubba]

The previous owner of my 86 4runner installed an electric fan on the radiator. Sadly it is not coming on when the car heats up. I tested it yesterday by running it straight to the battery and it does work... The relay is good too.
Any idea what this could be? The temperature sensor is a small rod that protrudes through the radiator core. The temp adjust screw is a small white plastic flathead screw that just turns and turns in either direction.

Any help would be great!

Thanks in advance

 

[KidVermicious]

I'd yank it out and replace it with a stock clutch. They do not "free up" horsepower vs. a properly functioning fan clutch, and as you've discovered they add more points of failure to a vital system. IMO, unless you're drag racing or crossing water up to your hood on your daily commute, an electric fan is more trouble than it's worth.

 

[penbergm]

I agree with Kid on switching back but your issue is probably either the temp sensor or more likely the adjustment screw. You would have to try to bypass each seperately to see which is bad. In the meantime, wire on all the time.

 

[Kellybubba]

I agree with Kid on switching back but your issue is probably either the temp sensor or more likely the adjustment screw. You would have to try to bypass each seperately to see which is bad. In the meantime, wire on all the time.

yeah, i'd like to wire it to stay on all the time while the car is running, at least for now, but I have no clue how to do that... There is a floating orange wire and a floating yellow wire that my mechanic cut but he said that they were no needed... Yellow is ignition signal and Orange is a fused wire i believe.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

Since you opened a new thread for this issue, I'll post a link to my reply the other day at the other thread:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/classic-t4rs/193888-heater-not-blowing-hot-my-86-4runner-2.html

Need to see if the flex-a-lite diagram I linked to in the other thread is what yours looks like. At least you'll be able to go through the wiring to make sure its correct! I dunno what color wires they used for yours, but there should be 5 connections to the box, and at least 3 of them need to be hooked up for it to run. There's two other terminals, one for a/c turn on and one for manual turn-on, you can use either of these to manually power the fan on.

I also gave you another link to a stand alone controller box, but its pricey and I'd say just go back to the stock fan unless you're planning on doing lots of trails in super-hot areas (which I used to do all the time).

 

[nevada]

The previous owner of my 86 4runner installed an electric fan on the radiator. Sadly it is not coming on when the car heats up. I tested it yesterday by running it straight to the battery and it does work... The relay is good too.
Any idea what this could be? The temperature sensor is a small rod that protrudes through the radiator core. The temp adjust screw is a small white plastic flathead screw that just turns and turns in either direction.

Any help would be great!

Thanks in advance

did you swap relays?

you could just replace the fan controller. they aren't that expensive. but, usually its the relays that go bad.

where in the rad is the temp probe?
is the coolant level good?

 

[Kellybubba]

did you swap relays?

you could just replace the fan controller. they aren't that expensive. but, usually its the relays that go bad.

where in the rad is the temp probe?
is the coolant level good?

I had replaced the relay at first but it didn't change anything.
I ended up buying a new controller. It was 30ish bucks and now the fan works. Let's hope it stays that way.