Many 86+ vans have a larger fan motor that has only 2 wire connections.
But the factory added an external resistor to slow it down for a low
speed setting and often a medium setting as well. So a single speed fan
motor that operates at 3 fan speeds for 86+ with factory A/C is very
common and that is what Dave has.

All USA market Vanagons came with dual temp switches in the radiator.
The 82 is a special case that came with 2 switch holes in the radiator
with a switch in each hole, one for low and one for high. With 83 the
radiator was changed and from then on came with a single switch hole so
a dual switch was used in the one hole from then on. The  82 radiators
went NLA quite a while ago so many 82 vans have been fitted with a later
radiator. It sounds like someone did this to your 82 and used one of the
82 switches instead of modifying the wiring to work with a later dual
switch.

The large fan motor version makes a VERY noticeable noise on highest
speed. Loud enough to make my heart jump when it suddenly activates up a
long grade. The low speed I sometimes notice but often other sounds
drown it out.

Mark

Brett Ne wrote:
> While sorting out cooling issues that came with my 82 diesel conversion, I
> found out that it had a 2-speed fan but only a 1-speed fan switch.
> Replacing the switch on the radiator with a 2-speed took care of that
> oversight(plus rewiring a bit...someone tried solving the overheating
> problem by wiring the fan to be on 100% of the time the ignition was on).
> If you have three wires coming out of the fan, you have a 2-speed fan; 2
> wires means a 1-speed fan. Same for the sensor/switch on the radiator: 3
> wires = 2-speed switch, 2 wires = 1-speed switch.  You could test by
> warming up the engine first, turning it off, then applying a heat gun to
> that portion of the radiator to see if you can trigger to two fan speeds.
> If you have an infrared thermometer, you can also read the two trigger
> temperatures easily; $12 at Harbor Freight...a dandy little tool to have.
> I wouldn't expect the fan to make much difference in cooling at highway
> speeds unless you have a significant tailwind.
>
>
> --
> Brett in Portland, OR
> "Albert" '82 VanaFox I4 Riviera
>