Need Help Wiring Flex-a-lite Fan

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bschooled

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Title says it, I bought a 183 over the 180 because it was cheaper and there were some suggestions that the brackets required less modification. Now I am trying to get the controller wired in properly.

My problems are these. I wired the 12v supply to the bolt in the side of the power dist. box thanks to some scouring of the forums. I wired the negative lead into the frame.

Now I need an "ignitition wire" this can be anything I can tap into that activates once the car is turned on. I need a suggestion for that because so far everything I have tried has done nothing.

I need to wire into the AC so it turns on with the AC. There is an AC relay in the power box, can I tap into that so the fan activates with AC, and if so what plug to I tap into?
 
I have the exact same fan and I think you probly read my post about the fan. I wired mine to come on when the key is on. I threw the temp controller in the trash. I could not get the fan to come on when it needed to. I wired the postive to the battery fitting in the passenger wheel well. I then tapped into a 12v switched wire under the steering colomn (green w/orange stripe I think) and used that with a relay to ground the fan when the key is on.

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Thanks for the reply. I used a fuse in the relay box to wire into the "ignition switch" terminal on the controller and it now lights up the LED when I turn the car on telling me it can see the voltage, now I am trying to see if I can get the temp sensor to work, so far the fan hasn't turned on. I don't know how to wire the AC switch in so that it will turn on with the AC.
 
I cant help you with the AC switch because I just wired mine to come on all the time. Mine works great that way. You wil find that the air blowing thru the grill will mess with the temp probe on the controller. Good luck getting it to work right, I spent days trying and finally gave up. If you wire it to come on with the ignition you wil never doubt if it is set right or not.
 
Well I managed to finally get it to come on at temp. I had to fiddle around with the temp sensor, I definitively think the heat transfer from radiator to sensor is delayed. I made sure to put it as close as possible to the upper radiator hose.

Still need to figure out where I should put the AC switch though ... although my AC doesn't work, but it just be nice as a sort of manual switch on.
 
Having the fan come on at temp while its in the driveway at idle is easy, having it come on at temp while driving with air hitting the probe was where i struggled. Props on the conversion, did you take out your hydraulic fan pump and use a shorter belt too?
 
Yeah the temp sensor seems to be a problem, they include a rubber cap to insulate the probe but I don't think it works well. I am think about relocating somewhere else where it will be shielded but haven't gotten that far.

Funny story, I actually have been running the car without a fan 7-8 months, pretty much since I bought. It was in pretty rough condition then, barely ran, the fluid resovoir for the pump was cracked and leaking everywhere, the pump whined, the fan didn't work at all, there was fluid all over the belt and it squeeked horrible. Power steering rack had a stripped bolt on one of the lines and threw fluid everywhere.

First thing I did was remove the hydraulic pump/fan/reservoir thanks to suggestions on this forum. Yeah I did run the shorter belt, its been working great, engine bay is much easier to work in without all that extra crap in there.

I have never had a problem with the car overheating while driving, its only when it sits after driving hard. It helps I have a brand new radiator.
 
Sounds like your LS has come a long way. The cooling system in these cars can be picky at times. The hydraulic fan idea was a stupid idea IMO. If you can get the temp probe figured out you can always wire it like I did. It works great.
 
I have the same fan installed on mine. The temp probe worked for a about 3 years then started working intermittently. Was hard to diagnose the problem to the temp probe because it would work for months then all of a sudden it would over heat. In the end I had to replace the degas bottle because it cracked when It over heated. I also rewired mine to come on whenever the car is running now. I also had to replace the motor in it a few months ago. THE MOTOR IS replaceable you don’t have to buy the entire new fan with shroud and blade. I think the new motor was 55 bucks.
 
could you put the temp probe in the rad hose? Summit sells adapters that have bungs for temp probes I have one for my temp gauge and it works fine.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I actually considered putting it in the rad hose, will have to look into further.
 
Yeah, as long as it will be the right temp range to get it to come on and off without being to late and letting it over heat.
 
Any way to splice in and use the factory signal? There is a cylinder head temp sensor located underneath the intake. Check out the link below to see Quik's car, and where he relocated his to. I'm sure you could do something similar.

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=17264

I do not think there is an actual coolant temp sensor.
 
You can buy an aluminum housing with a fitting for a temp sensor and splice it in your upper radiator hose. Then you just need to find some sort of compressive fitting for the temp probe. I'm sure they make a fitting for that but I wouldn't know where to get one.

If it were me, id just wire it to come on when the key is on and call it done. Simple and fail safe.
 
Thanks again for the suggestions. However to me the purpose of an electric fan is to only work when needed. If I wanted it on all the time I wouldn't have gotten it with controller. Not to mention the cooling system In this car is actually quite effecient it doesn't need much.
 
bschooled said:
Thanks again for the suggestions. However to me the purpose of an electric fan is to only work when needed. If I wanted it on all the time I wouldn't have gotten it with controller. Not to mention the cooling system In this car is actually quite effecient it doesn't need much.
Click to expand...

You could rig a circuit to control the electric fan using the PWM signal from the PCM that would be controlling the hydraulic fan speed solenoid.
 
bschooled said:
...Still need to figure out where I should put the AC switch though ... although my AC doesn't work, but it just be nice as a sort of manual switch on.
Click to expand...

If your AC doesn't work (assuming no or low refrigerant), the PCM will never activate the AC clutch relay, so the manual switch using the AC is a no-go.
 
Figured I would update. I now have the fan turning on and off properly at temp, the probe is kinda touchy on how it is placed, I find only inserting it so that the tip sticks just a little bit through the radiator yielded the best results.

If anyone every buys one of these fans I suggest planning on soldering all of the connections. The connectors they give with it kind of suck, especially for something as important as a cooling fan. I was having really inconsistent results until me and a friend redid all of the connections.
 
I never use butt connectors or wire nuts. Soldering wires and shrink tube is the only way to go. Glad you got the probe working.
 
Howdy, new member here. I like to be helpful where I can.

What would the possibility of using the control wire from the computer to run the efan? I would think that if you use the control wire to trip a relay that powers the fan that all these problems would go away.

An alternative is Delta Controls. I've used them in the past to run electric fans as a standalone and they work well. They can control dual fans with a 60 amp load, and they have a controller that will operate an electric water pump in addition to electric fans. They will also ease on the power as opposed to on/off, and will run the fans at whatever speed is needed to maintain the set temp. This lets the engine run at a more constant temperature.

I'd be very leery of the Flexalite controller. On the GM truck board I normally post on there have been a lot of reports of Flexalite controller units burning up. They are supposed to have fixed the problem, but still.

Hope this helps.
 
Telco said:
...
What would the possibility of using the control wire from the computer to run the efan? I would think that if you use the control wire to trip a relay that powers the fan that all these problems would go away...
Click to expand...

The problem is that the speed solenoid control from the PCM is not just an on/off signal. It is instead a PWM signal, where the pulse width is used to set the speed of the fan. If you just connect a relay, it will chatter on and off a few hundred times a second and quickly fail.

Of course, it is very possible with some electronics to convert this signal to something that can control the fan. At least one member here has done this.
 
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