No Cooling Fan or A/C Clutch

The fusable links will actually burn off when they go bad, they will also become brittle. You'll know if one is bad. They should only be about 2-3 inches they stop at a black block thingy and the regular wire continues from there. Just unclip the tabs on each side of the distribution box and it will lift up off of the bracket. This may give you a better view. On the other hand...checking voltage/continuity at the fan and fuse should suffice.
 
All the fuses and fuse links are good..

I do have continuity between the VCLM fuse and the cooling fan.
I checked the voltage at the vclm fuse when the power was off and got .45V and with the car running it had 5.4V.

I am at a loss, and have no earthly Idea where to go with this next.

I still don't entirely get the whole current carrying capacity thing and how the fan would be getting sufficient voltage but no current..

I am a novice with the will to learn when it comes to this high dollar bluepoint multimeter...about all I know how to use on it is the volts and the continuity beeper. Is there a setting where I can see what the current capacity is at the fan?
 
All the fuses and fuse links are good..

I do have continuity between the VCLM fuse and the cooling fan.
I checked the voltage at the vclm fuse when the power was off and got .45V and with the car running it had 5.4V.

I am at a loss, and have no earthly Idea where to go with this next.

I still don't entirely get the whole current carrying capacity thing and how the fan would be getting sufficient voltage but no current..

I am a novice with the will to learn when it comes to this high dollar bluepoint multimeter...about all I know how to use on it is the volts and the continuity beeper. Is there a setting where I can see what the current capacity is at the fan?
 
mk8fanatic said:
I checked the voltage at the vclm fuse when the power was off and got .45V and with the car running it had 5.4V.
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There's your problem. You should have battery voltage at all times at the cooling fan fuse and vclm battery feed(s).

The fuse links are in parallel by the way.

The fan power from the vclm is variable from 50% to 100% of the battery voltage.
 
I thought it seemed pretty low..

Any ideas on what can cause it to be low? The high current fuse box gets its power right of the battery no?

Should I try tracing the positive wire?

I swear that smoke came from the top front of the motor...If these fuse links have to do with the alternator could the alt short out but still supply power?
 
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Check the battery voltage at the terminals. Keep the negative lead on the battery and check the power at the power distribution box. The positive wire from the battery goes to a stud on the side of the fuse box. Check again the power at the fuse(s). When and where you see the drop in voltage - look between the two points.
 
I have good battery voltage, good power on the outside of the fuse box,but with th car running and the positive lead on the positive terminal and the negative lead on the vclm fuse terminal with the fuse out I get nothing on one side "obviously the side that goes to the battery positive....and the other acts really strange. When you pop out the fuse and check the terminal it starts out at around .2v then it will start to slowly climb up to around 10.0v...as soon as I put in the fuse and take it back out it starts all over again from .2v.
I did the same test on my other 97 and with the fuse out it was always a solid 13.5v the second I took out the fuse.
 
mk8fanatic said:
... with th car running and the positive lead on the positive terminal and the negative lead on the vclm fuse terminal with the fuse out I get nothing on one side "obviously the side that goes to the battery positive....and the other acts really strange. When you pop out the fuse and check the terminal it starts out at around .2v then it will start to slowly climb up to around 10.0v...as soon as I put in the fuse and take it back out it starts all over again from .2v.
Click to expand...

Very, very weird. :confused:

mk8fanatic said:
Think I could hard ground the vclm to see if it works? And if so and it works...could I just rerun the ground?
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Yes, and yes. It'd be worth a try. Something is very screwy and it could be a bad ground. I'm worried it may be a bad VCLM.

Have you tried the VCLM from the other car???
 
Sounds like you got a bad VCLM to me too. Curious why you bought new(used) parts when you have two identical cars!? :)
 
Maybe I did get a bad VCLM..

I usually do use my other gen 2 to figure things out...if you men think I might have got a bad vclm then swaping it out with the other car I will do...

Will update tonight..thanks.
 
I swapped out the vclm with the other mark and still nothing.

While I was at the vclm I checked what I could with the multimeter and these are the results.

with the negative lead on the negative battery terminal

PIN 4 & 5...12.5V ignition off, 14V ignition on
PIN 23.......5V ignition on and off

With the positive lead on the positive battery terminal

PIN 1 & 16 & 22...12.5V ignition off, 14V ignition on

It looks like the three grounds colored black 1,16,22 are good, and the two powers 4,5 are good as well.

What I have no idea about is PIN 23...the diagram on the page before shows PIN 23 as the multiplex communication network and goes to the PCM.
I swapped the PCM out as well with no luck.
 
WOW!!! Victory at last!!!

I started the motor without the vclm plugged in and turned the a/c on max, then I pluged the vclm in while it was running and the fan came on!!

For some reason I got the feeling that the problem was with the a/c part of the system so the first thing I did was check the freon
level......BINGO!!

Apparently the fan will not come on with the a/c unless the a/c clutch engages as well, and with low freon the clutch would not engage.....I totally thought that even if something was wrong with the a/c that the fan would still come on.

So I looked around and found a very small freon leak and put new o'rings
on the line. It has been two years since I took out the dash and heater plenum to fix a broken blend door & installed a new heater core...Guess I thought the last thing that would be wrong was low freon.
Anyway, I took it to by buddies house to put it on a vacuum and added new freon... Whahooo BACK IN BUSINESS!!!

Now I have a spare VCLM and cooling fan....oh and the car got a fresh alternator.....lol :big-grin:
 
Dang, that would have saved a ton of headache, hehe. But on the bright side, you know the inner workings of the VCLM now, haha.
 
Yup!...Like I told Driller in my other post about the gas vapor and the Evap system....I guess sooner or later I will probably have to deal with and learn about every aspect of these cars!..lol.....I really don't mind though because with a ton of expertise on this site I have been able to keep not only my Marks on the road but also my sisters, my dads, my friends, and my cousins as well.

I bought this Ivory Mark in Florida for a really cheap price and have slowly brought it back from the dead :D
Its sole purpose is to take the day to day punishment and miles of driving an hour each way to work off of my beloved octastar blue mark viii...I have never had any problems with it...finding me some wood..."Knock" "Knock"

I sure wish that I still lived in Mechanicsburg PA where my father still resides so that I could get together with everyone at Carlisle.
I happened to restore a 65 fastback shelby clone that I had in that car show all the time, and my father used to put his national first place prize winning 68 F100 in the All Fords Show and in Hershey.

Bye the way..How do I get pictures of my cars in the members cars area and car of the month?
 
mk8fanatic said:
Bye the way..How do I get pictures of my cars in the members cars area and car of the month?
Click to expand...

Become a dues paying member? ;)

When you do you will have access to the Member's forum and you can submit pictures for the calendar.
 
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