question about manual fan switch.

[93camaro_zzz]

I had a question about a manual fan switch. I had an idea, was going to see if anyone had tryed. I did a search, but of course nothing came up. When you wire a manula fan switch in, the norm is to just run a wire from the positive cable, all the way to the dash, then all the way back to the fan, to turn the fan on. I had the setup in my old firebird, and when I looked at it, I think my battery had somewhere abouts 12.2 volts at the positive terminal, and then right before hitting the fan, after running through that long @ss wire and the switch, it was at 10.2 volts. So, a 2 volt drop. I was thinking of a new way. Could I get a ford starter solenoid. And then run a diagram similar to this:

*Picture of schematic*

My main concern is that, these solenoids obviously only have to work for a couple of seconds, then when the engine is started they have completed there job, and by being open all the time, I think in a short amount of time, it would burn out. Just wondering if anyone has done this. It was just an idea, to reduce voltage drop. TIA for replies. :D

[whiteshark]

If I'm not mistaken the fan switch is really just a ground. All it does is when you flip the switch it grounds the circuit and turns on the fan. I don't know a whole lot about electronics so I very well may be wrong, but that's what it seems like to me. And you don't have to run a wire to the dash then back, all you need is one wire to your switch.

[MustangEater8251]

Originally posted by whiteshark:
If I'm not mistaken the fan switch is really just a ground. All it does is when you flip the switch it grounds the circuit and turns on the fan. I don't know a whole lot about electronics so I very well may be wrong, but that's what it seems like to me. And you don't have to run a wire to the dash then back, all you need is one wire to your switch.

what he said...

you jsut ground the high and low wires in the harness over the passenger side wheel(That group of like 3 harnesses)

[chas]

the wires that fan switch install guides make reference (blue and green i think) to are already going to relays. its easier for the pcm to switch relays than the fans directly.

[93camaro_zzz]

Oh ok. Thanks guys. I totally was mistaken, and thought the switch had to be on the hot side of the whole circuit. That makes since to have a switch on the ground side. Thanks for the help. ;)

[slow]

yeap, ground side is easier, no need for heavy duty 630/40/50 amp relays.

as long as you don't mind hacking into your wiring harness thats the easiest way, just throw a ground to it, the V6's don't seem to throw ses lights on the simple grounding method.

Ryan