Oil Cooler Fan

Anything switch related can fail

Chinese EMPI product?  EMPI = Every Mistake Passes Inspection or Exclusively Mediocre Parts Inside.

Check the fuse, check the ground wire, test the fan, then the thermostat switch.

I short the switch leads to test my fan every couple months. If you're good there then maybe the switch is bad.

Anything can go bad at any time, especially electrical.

That's what I am going to try in a few minutes.

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@DannyP posted:

...Anything can go bad at any time, especially electrical...

The corollary to this is that the less we've got, the less there is to fail.

Especially electrical.

It is possible to drive a Speedy in complete happiness with no thermostatic switch for one's cooler fan at all. A few of us do just that.

You then control the fan with a manual toggle switch, as you drive.

The down side of this is that you then have to pay attention to the temperature gauge as you drive. But you could argue that the up side of this is that you then have to pay attention to the temperature gauge as you drive.

Paying attention to the temperature gauge is something you should be doing anyway, with these 1930s-tech cars. It used to be required of all drivers back when all cars had temperature gauges, before the bots took over everything.

If you pay close enough attention, you'll start to get a feel for what stresses the engine and how to correct that in the way you drive. Stuff like what gear to carry going up a hill. Or how hard you can press it on the interstate before the heads are making more heat than they're happy with.

As an active participant in the driving process, you then turn on the cooler fan when appropriate and this will tell you how much of a help that fan is or isn't. It shows you when that cooler is keeping up with the engine's heat output and when even the cooler won't be enough and you need to change how you're driving to help.

In short, you get a much better intuitive feel for what stresses these engines and, if you want to, how to make them last longer by changing subtle things in how you drive.

And all that from just a dumb little switch. Such a deal. The thermostatic switch hides a lot of these subtle changes from the driver.

And, oh yeah, you also know right away if the cooler fan is working if you throw the switch and nothing happens on the temp gauge. With an automatic thermostatic switch, you never really know what's going on back there.

Ah, but then you've always got to be playing with a stupid switch, right?

Well. oddly, that's not the case.

You discover that most days you either leave the switch off altogether, or turn it on at some point and pretty much leave it on. The ambient temp will determine how far you can drive before you need to flip the switch. But that alone teaches you something about how these engines respond to small changes in ambient temperature.

OK, I'll stop now. I've gone on about this enough. And, once you've got a thermostatic switch wired in, you're not likely to change it out, anyway.

But, this is something to think about, no?

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You could always add an engine guard cylinder temperature gauge that comes with a buzzer to make sure you don’t forget it…. I agree it’s amazing what a little bit of information regarding the temperature of your engine will do for you especially if you have a feel safe warning device as well

@Sacto Mitch

I have 2 cylinder head temp. devices.

One is a sensor that fits under an engine tin screw by #3 plug. It triggers a light on my multi-gauge.

The other is a cylinder head gauge. It seem pretty normal even though my  oil temp was up.

I bypassed the switch and the fan came on. So, I ordered a new switch.

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@Michael McKelvey posted:

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I bypassed the switch and the fan came on. So, I ordered a new switch.

Excellent.

Maybe not as much fun as working a toggle switch, but excellent nonetheless.

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You could switch it …. to another type of switch too.

@Sacto Mitch posted:

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The corollary to this is that the less we've got, the less there is to fail.

Especially electrical.

It is possible to drive a Speedy in complete happiness with no thermostatic switch for one's cooler fan at all. A few of us do just that.

You then control the fan with a manual toggle switch, as you drive.

The down side of this is that you then have to pay attention to the temperature gauge as you drive. But you could argue that the up side of this is that you then have to pay attention to the temperature gauge as you drive.

Paying attention to the temperature gauge is something you should be doing anyway, with these 1930s-tech cars. It used to be required of all drivers back when all cars had temperature gauges, before the bots took over everything.

If you pay close enough attention, you'll start to get a feel for what stresses the engine and how to correct that in the way you drive. Stuff like what gear to carry going up a hill. Or how hard you can press it on the interstate before the heads are making more heat than they're happy with.

As an active participant in the driving process, you then turn on the cooler fan when appropriate and this will tell you how much of a help that fan is or isn't. It shows you when that cooler is keeping up with the engine's heat output and when even the cooler won't be enough and you need to change how you're driving to help.

In short, you get a much better intuitive feel for what stresses these engines and, if you want to, how to make them last longer by changing subtle things in how you drive.

And all that from just a dumb little switch. Such a deal. The thermostatic switch hides a lot of these subtle changes from the driver.

And, oh yeah, you also know right away if the cooler fan is working if you throw the switch and nothing happens on the temp gauge. With an automatic thermostatic switch, you never really know what's going on back there.

Ah, but then you've always got to be playing with a stupid switch, right?

Well. oddly, that's not the case.

You discover that most days you either leave the switch off altogether, or turn it on at some point and pretty much leave it on. The ambient temp will determine how far you can drive before you need to flip the switch. But that alone teaches you something about how these engines respond to small changes in ambient temperature.

OK, I'll stop now. I've gone on about this enough. And, once you've got a thermostatic switch wired in, you're not likely to change it out, anyway.

But, this is something to think about, no?

.

I feel the same way about the rev limiter.

@edsnova posted:

I feel the same way about the rev limiter.

I'm guessing you better get rid of that fancy Accusump then.

Oh I did.