So my lifted Brat is running again, but now the fan won't come on. After looking around, it seems that the fan is wired differently than in my other cars. It is connected to a solenoid on the passenger side up near the firewall connected to the strut mount. After playing with the solenoid that was on there I got it to start a few times. It would pop and the fan would turn on then pop again and turn off. So I grabbed a solenoid from the same place off my parts wagon, and swapped it in, but it doesn't seem to do anything anymore. What should I look into?

temp switch? is your radiator grounded?

I replaced the thermoswitch and grounded the radiator when we replaced it along with the engine. My temp guage doesn't work anymore as well, it did with the old radiator, but it doesn't seem to with this one. I wired it all back together right, and have looked at other cars I have, and it seems to be all right, but I don't know.

Well, the temp gauge is either the gauge itself, the sending unit, or the wiring.

Make sure the wiring for the gauge is correct. I believe there is a plug on or near the thermostat housing which the temp gauge uses.

 

I could be wrong, its been a while since Ive been under a EA81.

 

JB, if you wanna add some custom gauges, we could convert your Oil & Temp to manual gauges. They are 100% correct 100% of the time. The gauges in the stock subies are crap IMO. Maybe in your best interest.

 

Plus, when we wire your off-road lights, we can wire your fan to a relay and they can run all the time... shouldnt hurt. But as Dave would say "keep it stock" so we can try to trace down the problem on my next visit. Whenever that'll be.

 

-Brian

Make sure the wiring for the gauge is correct. I believe there is a plug on or near the thermostat housing which the temp gauge uses.

 

I could be wrong, its been a while since Ive been under a EA81.

 

JB, if you wanna add some custom gauges, we could convert your Oil & Temp to manual gauges. They are 100% correct 100% of the time. The gauges in the stock subies are crap IMO. Maybe in your best interest.

 

Plus, when we wire your off-road lights, we can wire your fan to a relay and they can run all the time... shouldnt hurt. But as Dave would say "keep it stock" so we can try to trace down the problem on my next visit. Whenever that'll be.

 

-Brian

 

yeah I'll check again. I'm in for using manual guages, and as you might know, that brat isn't exactly stock anymore, so all the more fun to do it a new way. we'll do it how ever we need to when you get back up here, I just wanted to get it going for now. Thanks for the help.

Remember how I fixed Daves fans when we where wheeling Jumbo Grade?

 

Cut the plug from your donor car, that plugs into the fan. You will need to figure out which is ground and which is hot (positive).

 

Wire the hot to the + on the coil.

 

Any time your ignition is turned on, the fan will turn on.

 

I wouldnt use it long-term, but it will keep your brat from overheating. If you switch to manual gauges then there is no wiring, therefore nothing to go wrong. Its definatly a more reliable way of going.

 

-Brian

Yup, I'm running mechanical guages on mine. Deffinately more accuate. My sister's temp switch gave up on her, so I just bypassed it and used an aftermarket adjustable thermoswitch and a relay for her car. It works. It just takes a little time to get the turnon-turnof window set right.