Black magic fan problems

[Sevan]

When the fan kicks on and off, I got a lot of feed back through the speakers, well now it does not turn on and the temp rises. I tooled around with it last night with the fan knod and it turned on for a few seconds and it turned off and that's all she wrote. I'm going to re-wire the whole thing again.

Do relays go bad? Do I need to change it? Should I get 6 or 8 gauge wire?

Even the radio drives me nuts, every hard dump the radio cuts off and on and I'm going to go freaking nuts.

Anyone have any ideas????

 

[Black331Stang]

yeah coould be the relay, and yes they do go bad, ive heard about once a year they burn out and with the radio thing, mine did the same thing. Check thos fuse tubes (brown and yellow i think) and make sure its all conneted (u can even pull the fuses out of them). and check all your connections. radio turns completely off or it "pops"?

 

[Michael Yount]

There are much more elegant ways to control your fan than relays and switches. Try the link below - I use one on my dual 11" SPAL shrouded fans and it's an unbelievably efficient unit. Will reduce current draw, eliminate current start up spikes -- just the best way I've seen to control a cooling fan. It controls to within +/- 3F provided you've got enough radiator capacity, and your fan is capable of moving enough air.

http://www.dccontrol.com/componentsR1.htm

 

[Sevan]

Its pops, but does not completly turn off. Any suggestions on how big of a relay I should get? Will replacing the cheap power wire that is sent with the fan with a bigger guage wire help also? I don't want anymore shorts or any fires

 

[Michael Yount]

Contact the folks that make the fan - they should have all kinds of data on how many amps the fan pulls max. Your relays and wiring/fuses should be sized with that load data in mind. It's not necessarily a one size fits all, but a good rule of thumb on a unit like that is no smaller than 10ga or 12ga wire for the main power lead into the relay, and for the grounds and power lead to the fan. For the relay's coil supply (hot when you flip a toggle if that's how it's hooked up) 16ga or 18ga should be fine - very little amperage runs through the relay coil to energize it and close the switch.

 

[Sevan]

Well I just called the company and they mentioned that I should change the wire to the "B" terminal to a 10ga wire and replace the relay and instead of grounding the ground wire to the body, they said to ground it to the battery. We shall see tonight if that works.