Guest Earl Filippelli Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Hello All,After a drive i noticed smoke from under the hood,the fire was in the junction box with red cover a black wire had burned in two,i lost my heatre a/c fan and my coolng fans.I found i had a loose and i mean loose positive batt cablei corrected that,re joined the black wire that burned and installed a fuse in the line to be on the safe side now my heater fan works for a shoet time and then the 25amp fuse blows.the junction box i mentioned is on the right side of the car.As always thanks for any help. Earl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Drake Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Hey Earl:What 25amp fuse are you talking about? Is it fuse #14 in the passenger side console fuse panel? Also, where did you install the inline fuse you mentioned? The red junction box you are talking about is the main power distribution. All of the leads coming out of there are factory fusible links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 The a/c-heater fan is in fuse #12 and you wipers, and rear defroster are also on #12The cooling fans are on fuse #20Over at the red box, fusible link "A" feeds the relays for the cooling fans.Sometimes a bad ground can cause strange things to happen. Look in front of the battery, on the cross bulkhead that supports the radiator and you will find one or two screws/studs that are the ground point for lots of components. MAKE CERTAIN THESE ARE TIGHT.Report your results after checking all these connections.You may need to disconnect the battery for 30 seconds to reset the electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stormin Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 What a co-winkydink....our 89 just experienced the same thing. Guess I know EXACTLY where to start . Thanks guys,Norm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stormin Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 OK....obviously the same fusible link burnt in two on our car. I checked all the connections, including the bulkhead connections, and all were tight ...except for the ground connections under the black cover just below the red box. The actual connections are tight, but the connecting stud appears loose to the body. Is this normal? Also, should I do as Earl did and put an inline fuse in place of the fusible link? To replace the fusible link it appears that I would have to replace a major portion of the harness. IF...I put an inline fuse, what amp fuse would you suggest? It appears that after Earl installed his inline fuse it just moved the problem to the fuse panel.I suspect the ground lug under the black cover to have been the culprit in my case. Looking to the experts for a little guidance. Thanks....Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Drake Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Norm,I checked the ground terminals on my 89. They are in a black box marked ELECTRONICS GRD., behind the battery. The ground lug appears to be loose, but is not. I am able to move the whole assembly slighty. I did check with an ohm meter. Everything checked out OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I don't own a 1988 or 1989 which both probably have the black box. Speaking from no experience, if it were mine, I would get to the bottom of the problem by removing all the wires and then the box and determine why it is loose.Find a way to tighten everything and reassemble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stormin Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 I have already done as you suggested Barney and the lug within the box is not mounted to the actual body. It's just a connector point for one of the battery ground wires to connect to SEVERAL other grounds. You can actually reach up behind the fender where the box mounts and feel that the lug does not mount to the fender, but just to the plastic box.Now, that said, I may have found my problem. A couple weeks ago while looking for reasons for all our MANY rattles I found that the front cooling fan had a plastic grocery bag rapped around the motor shaft. I had to remove the fan assembly to remove the blade and cut loose all the bag (it was actually hard as a brick). Up to that point we hadn't had any real temperature issues, no codes, nothing. When the smoke was detected from the burnt link she realised that she no longer had heater fan control either.I checked the front fan again and for some reason the blade appeared out of round? Upon removal I find that the plastic blade has somehow melted within it's hub, and dropped out of center. Time for a new blade.I stopped working on the car yesterday afternoon as it was time for me to leave for work.Before I left,I let the car warm up and watched to see if the motor side fan would turn on, and when.Temp got up to 220 and I shut it down, no fan.Someone had mentioned that we may need to disconnect the battery for a certain length of time for it to reset the....codes? I had the battery disconnected while working on the wiring and when started everything seemed normal. Should I maybe need to go in and check to see if any codes need cleared? Will the one fan work with the other removed? Later today I will check the fan motor that I removed to see if it works properly and probably the other one too. Sounds like it's time for the ohm meter . Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Drake Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Norm, also check the three relays associated with the fans. They are located in the engine compartment in front of the air cleaner assembly, covered by a black plastic cover, marked RELAY CENTER. Remove the fender brace, and loosen the thumb screw on the cover ( It does not come out of the cover ). Under the cover, you will find the accessory relays marked ( two for the pusher fan & one for the puller fan ). These relays are still available through GM. The GM # is 14100455, approx: $16.00 each.Also, you will find two 15amp fuses for the headlight doors.When I had trouble with my right park/turn light, I found it by using the horn relay (which I new was good), and swapped it back and forth with the other relays. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stormin Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 OK...found new pusher fan motors as cheap as $30 at local parts supply houses, but they didn't list the blade. Didn't even want to call Buick as their prices are always outta line.Decided to do the "Pick-a-Part" trip and see what they had.Not too many GMs had pusher fans, but I noticed that some of the Caddys did. A little measuring and I was convinced it was usable as a complete fan and motor assemby.The Caddy setup actually has their mount with a perimeter plastic ring....maybe for protection of the blade? The factory Caddy mount would not fit in our tighter confines so I had to swap the Reata mount to the Caddy blade an motor.Perfect exact replacement.Plugged it in and fired her up!I had not noticed exactly how our fans worked before, but after researching here found out about the low speed mode. Temp climbed up to about 195 and pretty much stabilized.I got out and noticed both fans were now operating a low speed...HOORAY!! lol While I had the pusher fan out of the car, the puller fan would not operate. I ended up jumping the relay and it would operate at high speed.Evidently, when one fan is unplugged the other will not function.I hope this might be of help to some other with similar problems.As I stated earlier, this all started with a plastic bag wrapped around the fan motor. Thanks again for all your help and guidance....Norm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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