I like you already, Ron. :-)
Michael in San Antonio
91GL Weekender AT 2.1L 'Gringo'
73 Beetle

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 1:59 PM, ron johnson <rcj.yes@gmail.com> wrote:

> Reviewed Bentley again and comments and Alistair's blog entry on his
> friend's recent fan issue and decided that it really had to be the 3rd Stage
> Relay.
>
> Since the fan ran when both the Thermo-Switch and the Cooling Fan relay
> were unplugged and the van is a '91 with A/C, the only other power source
> was through the 3rd Stage Cooling Fan Relay [Bentley 97.145]. Normally, the
> 102'C side of the Thermo-Switch needs to be on and the A/C controls need to
> be on for this relay to be on. A/C controls were not on and the
> Thermo-Switch was not on which led to the conclusion that the relay had
> somehow stuck on by itself.
>
> Yesterday, I was unsuccessful at removing the left side vent to access the
> relay and fuse.... but had done a lot of wiggling of stuff in the attempt.
> This morning the fan was off! Oh no! Troubleshooting nightmare - I had
> turned a solid fail into an intermittent problem.... uggh!
>
> To try to get a look at the relay/fuse, I dropped the fuse block down and
> could then see the relay sitting behind the vent hose..... a little wiggling
> and it was loose!
> So why was the relay stuck on? And why wasn't the fan on today? A small
> amount of corrosion had formed between the 12V power terminal of the relay
> and the power contact for its solenoid. The corrosion was forcing the relay
> on and yesterday's wiggling had disturbed the corrosion enough to break the
> current path. Interesting. (And I hope this is the answer!)
>
> Thank you to all who offered help/advice/suggestions.
>
> P.S. Tip - attaching a small magnet to the shank of the screwdriver will
> help hold screws in place while reinstalling in awkward places where you
> really, really do not want a screw to get lost. And I needed to move the van
> to be better protected while working on the driver's side - surprised to
> learn it would start and drive okay with the instrument panel mostly
> disconnected - odd, but okay for a short run.
>
> Ron J.
> PDX, OR
> '91  Betsy