engine fan wiring

[amcfall]

Hello Everyone,

I recently purchased a 1981 spider and everything seems to work well except the engine fan was not turning on when the car heats up. I noticed the fan is not hooked up to the electoral thermo switch on the bottom of the radiator. The fan has one wire run to a ground and a second wire directly to the fuse box. When I purchased the car the wire to the fuse box was unplugged. If I plug it in the fan runs at all times when the car is on. This keeps the car cool enough but I would like to set up everything properly. I am preparing to flush the radiator and install a new switch. It looks like both the fan and switch should have one wire running to the fan motor relay and second wire as a ground. Can someone tell me where the Motor relay is or send me a picture? Also, the previous owner had purchased a new thermo switch. It has a plug that looks like it is meant to plug directly into the fan and not split off into a power source and a ground. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Andrew

[So Cal Mark]

the 81 didn't use a relay (too bad). It got power directly from a fuse, the ground side went through the thermoswitch

[76was124]

As Mark said, +12 v to fan, other fan wire to switch, other switch wire to ground (chassis)

Full wiring diagrams courtesy of Brad Artigue can be found at http://www.artigue.com/fiat/

[amcfall]

Great, thanks for the info and the quick response!

[KevAndAndi]

I'm doing the exact same thing: about to drain and flush the cooling system and replace a bad fan thermoswitch. The difference for me is that the switch was working when we bought the car in October 2014. I witnessed it go bad. At one point, though it continued to switch the fan on at the proper temperature, it began failing to cycle off until after the engine was off and cool. Then, it reached a point when it would never turn off, even when the engine was off and cool. It eventually had attained "total continuity" - kind of like Bill Murray's "total consciousness" in Caddyshack.