cooling fan
- Thread starter WickedGnarly
- Start date
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Yesterday I took the fan back out of the bike. I used an electronics cleaner to clean between the fan hub and motor. The solvent was coming out of the hub dark for a while then it cleaned up to clear.
After the cleaning, the fan blade spins much more freely by hand and coasts to a stop instead of snapping to a stop. I bench tested it by connecting the fan to the battery with a test cable I made. The fan fires right up and ran like a champ. I let the fan run for three minutes and observed it's behavior.
At the fan plug (fan side) I tested resistance per the manual. I got a confusing reading though, and I hope someone can help me understand it;
The manual says to look for a value of more than one ohm for a good fan. My meter shows 2.5 then quickly goes to 0.5 ohms. I'm not sure which reading is correct.
Tonight I rode the bike to work and at the end of my ride, the fan came on for one second then blew another fuse. The problem is apparently unchanged by the cleaning.
Now I have to get my data together and try to figure this out. I need to know whether this is a short in the harness, or a fan that's not going to work anymore in the bike. (but works just fine with direct power)
I'm going to check the harness for a short with my meter. If there is a short, the fan is probably good. I'll check the entire path and ground connections.
I'm also going to monitor the amps drawn by the fan during a bench test. If the fan is drawing fourteen amps or something, I know it's not well. If it only draws six or seven amps, the short will look more likely.
Any thoughts at this juncture?
Thanks for helping me shoot this issue guys.
Levi
After the cleaning, the fan blade spins much more freely by hand and coasts to a stop instead of snapping to a stop. I bench tested it by connecting the fan to the battery with a test cable I made. The fan fires right up and ran like a champ. I let the fan run for three minutes and observed it's behavior.
At the fan plug (fan side) I tested resistance per the manual. I got a confusing reading though, and I hope someone can help me understand it;
The manual says to look for a value of more than one ohm for a good fan. My meter shows 2.5 then quickly goes to 0.5 ohms. I'm not sure which reading is correct.
Tonight I rode the bike to work and at the end of my ride, the fan came on for one second then blew another fuse. The problem is apparently unchanged by the cleaning.
Now I have to get my data together and try to figure this out. I need to know whether this is a short in the harness, or a fan that's not going to work anymore in the bike. (but works just fine with direct power)
I'm going to check the harness for a short with my meter. If there is a short, the fan is probably good. I'll check the entire path and ground connections.
I'm also going to monitor the amps drawn by the fan during a bench test. If the fan is drawing fourteen amps or something, I know it's not well. If it only draws six or seven amps, the short will look more likely.
Any thoughts at this juncture?
Thanks for helping me shoot this issue guys.
Levi
Mark XB12r
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 20, 2012
- Messages
- 425
Levi, I think you have a good handle on things with your plan of checking the harness. Before you take an hour or so trouble shooting the harness do me a favor. The ohms on the fan readings make me think its iffy too. The jumper you made for bench testing, put a fuse inline on the jumper the same size as the one in the fuse box and bench test it. see if it blows that in the same time as when it blows on the bike. If it dosnt blow, then you know the prob is in the harness... if it does then it is most likely the fan... Good Luck
Thanks Mark.
I wanted to put a fuse on my test leads as well. I wish I could bench test the fan in high speed mode though. I think the ECU gives it 14 volts or so to get that. Since I'm plugging it directly to the battery I'm getting 12-13 volts and thus low speed right?
I wanted to put a fuse on my test leads as well. I wish I could bench test the fan in high speed mode though. I think the ECU gives it 14 volts or so to get that. Since I'm plugging it directly to the battery I'm getting 12-13 volts and thus low speed right?
Mark XB12r
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 20, 2012
- Messages
- 425
Well if your talking about how it comes on when you turn off the bike... When it starts fast then goes to slow.... no it will not get more than whats in the batt at shut off, and its not going to be 14v. The batt wont have 14v in it at shut down.
Im not sure of the tools you have avalible, but this is what i would do. Hook up a fuse like I described, then jump it off my car batt with my car running. If no fuse burn with the amps/volts avalible from the car, then its in the bike harness not the fan.
This is what i would do... Remember the fan will not pull more than its designed to, unless its broke, hence the fuse for protection. And to me since it works fine when you jumped it in the past with out smoking the motor, or the wires that were in your hands my money is on your fault is in the bikes harness. Rember these three golden rules
1. Blown fuses = hot wire shorted to ground
2. something working with out demand = example- turn signal turn on with high beam switch means to power wires shorted togeather.
3. Something not working on demand = example- no brake light when brake applied, is and open circut on power or ground.
Hope this helps, good luck
Im not sure of the tools you have avalible, but this is what i would do. Hook up a fuse like I described, then jump it off my car batt with my car running. If no fuse burn with the amps/volts avalible from the car, then its in the bike harness not the fan.
This is what i would do... Remember the fan will not pull more than its designed to, unless its broke, hence the fuse for protection. And to me since it works fine when you jumped it in the past with out smoking the motor, or the wires that were in your hands my money is on your fault is in the bikes harness. Rember these three golden rules
1. Blown fuses = hot wire shorted to ground
2. something working with out demand = example- turn signal turn on with high beam switch means to power wires shorted togeather.
3. Something not working on demand = example- no brake light when brake applied, is and open circut on power or ground.
Hope this helps, good luck
WickedGnarly
Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
- Messages
- 10
This forum has become my favorite place on the internet.
I don't think this will help Levi out (sry man) but since I was the op I figured I'd let you all know that the wire harness deal that runs to the fan past the rear cylinder head fried on mine. I'm pretty sure I can find scrap at work that will be close enough to for me to run new wires.
For Levi: I'm not sure if you've used ecmspy, I dabbled for an afternoon and this is what led me to discover the bad wires. They spark when I run a fan diagnostic After you select the right options there are a bunch of diagnostics you can do. I don't actually know what the fan diagnostic does. because mines fubar. I assume of course that it tests low and high speeds. But perhaps if you can hang test the fan on the motorcycle you would be able to better discover if its a fan or bike problem. Since you know that it works on the bench.
:cheers:
I don't think this will help Levi out (sry man) but since I was the op I figured I'd let you all know that the wire harness deal that runs to the fan past the rear cylinder head fried on mine. I'm pretty sure I can find scrap at work that will be close enough to for me to run new wires.
For Levi: I'm not sure if you've used ecmspy, I dabbled for an afternoon and this is what led me to discover the bad wires. They spark when I run a fan diagnostic After you select the right options there are a bunch of diagnostics you can do. I don't actually know what the fan diagnostic does. because mines fubar. I assume of course that it tests low and high speeds. But perhaps if you can hang test the fan on the motorcycle you would be able to better discover if its a fan or bike problem. Since you know that it works on the bench.
:cheers:
All of this info and experience sharing is great. It's saved me a lot of preliminary searching and reading that usually happens before the job. Thanks.
As soon as I get an idea of what the motor is drawing, and I hunt down any evidence of a short, I'll be back to report.
Thanks to jimi, Mark and wickedGnarly
As soon as I get an idea of what the motor is drawing, and I hunt down any evidence of a short, I'll be back to report.
Thanks to jimi, Mark and wickedGnarly
Winner winner chicken dinner.
Carlos wins the cigar. The damn thing blew the fuse in my meter so it was in excess of 20A. I should have done the math first and saved myself some time.
New fan is on the way from Surdyke unless someone can point me to a lower priced alternative.
I'll replace the fan and report back with a post-mortem of my blown fan. Thanks everyone for really bringing the tech on this problem. Thanks for helping even though I was being stubborn about maybe being able to save the fan.
Be back soon with the follow up post..
Levi
[up]
Carlos wins the cigar. The damn thing blew the fuse in my meter so it was in excess of 20A. I should have done the math first and saved myself some time.
New fan is on the way from Surdyke unless someone can point me to a lower priced alternative.
I'll replace the fan and report back with a post-mortem of my blown fan. Thanks everyone for really bringing the tech on this problem. Thanks for helping even though I was being stubborn about maybe being able to save the fan.
Be back soon with the follow up post..
Levi
[up]
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