eduncan911
Registered
Fyi, I purchased this car in 2001 with a broke motor. Come to find out when I got it running last year, with insurance, that it has had $9000 in damage!!! CarFax rules, but jez... There are some tail-tail signs, but it was fixed at a Lincoln dealership. So I know it was fixed as best as it could be (it's great).
Ok, my cooling fan stopped working over the winter and I didn't notice it until things got a little warming a few months ago. Car kept getting close to overheating. Saw immediately that the fan wasn't working (explains why the A/C was INOP as well).
A little debugging, I saw no power was being supplied to the fan with the MAX A/C setting set (which should kick any Ford/Lincoln cooling fan on HS or high speed). Saw I had voltage out of the fuse. Only logical conclusion? Bad VCRM (other EVTMs I've used at the dealship calls it an IRCM or CCRM, hehe.. yet a 3rd definition!).
So I orderd the $230 or so piece and installed it. BAM, cooling fan started working again. But I noticed a weird sound and the fan wasn't blowing as hard as one would expect. Ok, may need another motor soon.
While I was doing this, I noticed the cooling fan motor was been replaced with some type of aftermarket one. To make things worse, there was no connector location on the new motor. Just a 3-wire plug (fyi, only two wires are used on these motors. The VCRM controls the speed of the fan with resistors on that one wire). So whoever put this motor in, spliced into the factory 10-AWG wires!! Argh.
Well, two weeks later I notice the car starting to overheat again. Checking, the damn cooling fan isn't working again!
A bit more involved disassembly of the system reveals that the 10-AWG wire coming from the VCRM can't carry the amps that the fan is trying to draw, therefore creating a high load and burned out the VCRM again. Not high enough to blow the fuse, but high enough it seems to kill the VCRM.
I tried replacing the 10-AWG from the VCRM to the fan, still an unusally high draw. Not to mention I am not goign to get ANOTHER VCRM. Most likely the issue is in the harness from the engine compartiment fuse block to the VCRM for the cooling fan. I didn't not fill like yanking that out and replacing it.
So screw it. I found some 30AMP relays (not high for the fan, as it says up to 40AMPs can draw on the motor). So I wired them in paraelle to distribute the load, ran new 10-AWG gauges, and wired the control circuit up to the EEC power (so when the computer is powered, the fan is on HS).
Figured this isn't hurting anything, since the stock thermostat is 195 degrees or so. Wanted to use the Cold Engine Lockout Switch to pwoer the fan only when the motor is warmed up. But in order to have the A/C working (i.e. defrost), you have to have that cooling fan working if you are trying the compressor. Else the high-side can get extremely high in pressure.
Fun fun...
Ok, my cooling fan stopped working over the winter and I didn't notice it until things got a little warming a few months ago. Car kept getting close to overheating. Saw immediately that the fan wasn't working (explains why the A/C was INOP as well).
A little debugging, I saw no power was being supplied to the fan with the MAX A/C setting set (which should kick any Ford/Lincoln cooling fan on HS or high speed). Saw I had voltage out of the fuse. Only logical conclusion? Bad VCRM (other EVTMs I've used at the dealship calls it an IRCM or CCRM, hehe.. yet a 3rd definition!).
So I orderd the $230 or so piece and installed it. BAM, cooling fan started working again. But I noticed a weird sound and the fan wasn't blowing as hard as one would expect. Ok, may need another motor soon.
While I was doing this, I noticed the cooling fan motor was been replaced with some type of aftermarket one. To make things worse, there was no connector location on the new motor. Just a 3-wire plug (fyi, only two wires are used on these motors. The VCRM controls the speed of the fan with resistors on that one wire). So whoever put this motor in, spliced into the factory 10-AWG wires!! Argh.
Well, two weeks later I notice the car starting to overheat again. Checking, the damn cooling fan isn't working again!
A bit more involved disassembly of the system reveals that the 10-AWG wire coming from the VCRM can't carry the amps that the fan is trying to draw, therefore creating a high load and burned out the VCRM again. Not high enough to blow the fuse, but high enough it seems to kill the VCRM.
I tried replacing the 10-AWG from the VCRM to the fan, still an unusally high draw. Not to mention I am not goign to get ANOTHER VCRM. Most likely the issue is in the harness from the engine compartiment fuse block to the VCRM for the cooling fan. I didn't not fill like yanking that out and replacing it.
So screw it. I found some 30AMP relays (not high for the fan, as it says up to 40AMPs can draw on the motor). So I wired them in paraelle to distribute the load, ran new 10-AWG gauges, and wired the control circuit up to the EEC power (so when the computer is powered, the fan is on HS).
Figured this isn't hurting anything, since the stock thermostat is 195 degrees or so. Wanted to use the Cold Engine Lockout Switch to pwoer the fan only when the motor is warmed up. But in order to have the A/C working (i.e. defrost), you have to have that cooling fan working if you are trying the compressor. Else the high-side can get extremely high in pressure.
Fun fun...