i just installed an adjustable thermostat for my efan today, it works great. Its nice not having to deal with a toggle switch anymore, BUT now the car takes 2-3 to shutoff after i take out the key. i wired the thermostat to the trailing coil. is there a better place to hook it up??

 

Why did you wire the thermostat to the trailing coil? The electric motor of the fan/thermostat is backfeeding into your trailing coil giving it power. This is why you are having a shut off delay.

 

i didnt know where else to wire it. i did a search on here and found out that a few people wired it like that.

 

I think you can connect it behind the water pump housing where the thermostat sensor is. once the thermostat opens, the electrical fan will go on.

 

I assume you have a relay to supply power from the battery to the fan. The power wire you have hooked to the trailing coil is to supply switched power to the relay, right? If so and you have the wire connected to either coil's positive terminal it should work fine.

 

Joey, You know better. Think about it. The No. 1 water temperature switch (back of the water pump) switch is "on" when cold to supply power to the choke cable electro-magnet so the **** stays out when pulled. It turns off when the coolant warms and releases the choke cable magnet (the **** pops in), right?

 

Wire the signal from the trailing coil, that signal triggers a relay.

 

im a noob when it comes to electrical work so bear w me
i probably did it wrong but i just went w the diagram it came with

so..the (pontiac fiero) Efans ground wire is bolted down to the chassis and the power is straight to the adjustable thermostat, then i wired the thermostat to the + side of the trailing coil.

 

Wire a relay in. I can get you a diagram in the morning, as I seem to have deleted mine.

Use the 12v from the coils as a trigger. then run a ground for the relay, and a power in and power out on the relay. Power in from the battery, power out to the fan, relay ground to a ground on the car or the negative post on the battery. The Fan itself should get the power from the out on the relay and ground from the body of the car.

You can also run the signal in line with a switch, but you said that you have a thermostat.

 

Power for thermostat should come from + coil terminal. Out from thermostat should trigger relay. Relay has 4 terminals. Marked 85, 86, 87 and 30. 85 goes to ground. 86 is the trigger (from thermostat). 87 comes from Battery positive terminal. 30 is 12V out to fan. Fan ground wire goes to chassis or Negative battery terminal. The wire from the battery to the relay should be same size or larger wire than the power wire into the fan. Good idea to put a fuse in that line also. 12V relays are available at most Auto parts and electronics stores. Relay and fuse need to handle at least 30 amps, 40amp is what I use. Too lazy to take a picture, but here's a scan of a relay.

 

There you go. I keep forgetting I run mine by switch (what my post said) and you run a thermo switch.

+1

 

thanks for the advice guys. i somewhat understand how to wire up the relay but a diagram would really help me out.

 

The fan controller I got was a "relay-less" unit. I also drew current from one of the coil positive posts, and I also had a slight delay in shutdown as described. But this only happens when I shut down with the fan running (it doesn't run very often).

I consider it to be a minor nuisance, and not worth trying to "fix".

 

if you're like me and need visual diagrams and what not this will help, but these guys seem to have it all covered. anyways i used the second diagram in this page and works great, it explains the differences between the two diagrams so you can choose which will work great with your set up

http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/efaninstall.htm

 

I know its crude at best, but heres a simple diagram. Basically the idea behind the relay is to use the trailing coil + to send a signal that the fan needs to come on, but have the fan actually draw the power from the battery. I personally wire anything that draws over .5 amps through a relay. the pin numbers are identical to a standard bosch 5 pin relay, which is what you should use.

 

Relays are good, no doubt. Once you understand the concept of a relay, you'll begin to see uses for them everywhere...

 

i couldnt have said it better for myself. like i said above, I use them on anything that draws more than .5 amps.

 

nice..thank you!!! but now where does the thermostat hook up to? it has 2 male plugs. one for the +fan and the other for a 12v

 

Wire for 12v goes to + terminal on coil. Wire for +fan goes to terminal 86 on relay.

Wiring like the diagram would cause the relay to turn on the fan any time the ignition was turned on. You want the thermostat to stop and start the power from the ignition switch (+coil) so it turns the relay/fan on and off at the appropriate temperature.

 

i didnt bother mentioning that since he already said he was using a thermostat, but yeah, thats correct. the thermostat just goes inline between the + side of the coil and pin 86 so that it wont let the power travel through to the relay to activate it until the radiator temp gets high enough. another alternative that ive seen used, is to run battery voltage through the thermostat to pin 86, which will cause the fan to run after you shut the car off until it cools the radiator down. I dont really like that setup because it puts alot more stress on your battery, but it IS an option.

 

Ok so i have a question. Soon installing e fan in an SA, and am wandering if i can still get signal for aux 12v from the trailing coil. I hear (but am not sure) that the trailing ignition is turned off at times in an SA. Any e fan SA owners out there, if so hows it wired up?

 

Should work the same way. Switched power is at either + coil terminal.