Ramcharger Fans Observations

[Buick Beginner]

Gentlemen,
I recently received my Ramcharger fans and after trimming the ears and fabricating mounting brackets, I have it installed. It looks, fits and runs wonderfully. I did not order the plug and play adaptor because of the fact that I was told by Ramchargers that the fans would run on high speed all the time as opposed to a high and low speed with the stock fan. I hooked up the wiring using the stock fan's resistor in order to have two speed fan operation. I have a high speed fan switch inside the car and a low speed fan switch inside the car which I had put in a year ago. The switches are self explanatory, each has an LED light indicating when the fan is running regardless of whether or not the switch is thrown (in other words, when the low speed fan kicks on by itself, the light comes on). Now, these are my observations: (1) when the ECM kicks on the low speed fan, both fans do come on and at low speed through the resistor; (2) if I hit the high speed fan switch, it turns the fans on high speed; (3) if I have the high speed switch on and kick the low speed switch on, the fans run at a higher speed than just with the high speed switch on, in essence making a "third" speed. With that in mind, I removed the factory fan resistor and ran the low speed wiring directly into the fan with the high speed wiring. So the way it looks is as follows: green wire on RC fan to high speed in Buick; yellow wire on RC fan to low speed in Buick; blacks both to ground. And here is the way it works: if the ECM triggers the low speed fan, both fans come on pulling a good amount of CFM's. But, whenever the air conditioning kicks on or I hit the high speed fan switch, the RPMs and CFMs increase noticeably on the fans. I said all that to say this: the way it is looking right now, I have a two speed fan set up without a resistor. Will someone please tell me that I am crazy and I don't know what I am talking about, because for all intents and purposes, the fans do run two speeds without a resistor. Comments? - BB

 

[Buick Beginner]

Come, Come now

Someone has to have something to say. - BB

 

[tminer]

It is possible that the yellow wire is for low speed and the green for high. Sounds like it from your setup.

I wonder if for high it needs both yellow and green to +12v. If fan is on low speed and hi is selected then both will have +12v. What happens when high speed is selected when fan is off? Maybe it is 3 speed (yellow, green, both) or maybe it will just go up in smoke! When the fan is run by the deleay relay with ignition off there is no voltage to low, so you may want to check if yellow needs +12v for high speed.

Maybe I'll mess around with mine tonight or someone from Ramchargers can tell us.

Tom

 

[kev@ramchargers]

Originally posted by tminer
It is possible that the yellow wire is for low speed and the green for high. Sounds like it from your setup.

I wonder if for high it needs both yellow and green to +12v. If fan is on low speed and hi is selected then both will have +12v. What happens when high speed is selected when fan is off? Maybe it is 3 speed (yellow, green, both) or maybe it will just go up in smoke! When the fan is run by the deleay relay with ignition off there is no voltage to low, so you may want to check if yellow needs +12v for high speed.

Maybe I'll mess around with mine tonight or someone from Ramchargers can tell us.

Tom

The fans have 2 speed motors that do not work with a resistor.
The Turbo Buick adapter provides 12 volts to the green and yellow wire at the same time. Thus, high speed.

The dedicated harness with the 3 way swith uses two 30 amp relays that power the green and yellow wire seperatly. One relay for the green side, one relay for the yellow side.
I believe the yellow wire is low speed side.



Hope this helps.

 

[TurboDave]

Hmmm, very puzzling how you managed to get two speed out of the fans without the resistor. Especially in light of the fact that the voltage comming out of the relays (high speed, low speed, delay, don't matter) is 12v, period. Must be some wierd wiring done to "that" turbo regal

 

[tminer]

Dave,

Can a DC motor have multiple sets of windings and vary speed based on how many sets are powered?

Maybe they have a speed control built in or an internal resistor.

Tom

 

[machinegun]

This what I found. If you power either yellow or green with 12 volt plus and the blacks to gournd you get low speed. You have to apply 12 volt plus to both the yellow and green at the same time to get high speed. Hope this helps but that is what I found.

 

[tminer]

Originally posted by machinegun
This what I found. If you power either yellow or green with 12 volt plus and the blacks to gournd you get low speed. You have to apply 12 volt plus to both the yellow and green at the same time to get high speed. Hope this helps but that is what I found.

That might explain why a simple adaptor was not made that works like factory. A big diode (30A, 20v??) between the high & low wires would do the trick if practical (expense, size, heat). + side to the high wire and - to the low. Then high powers both ciruits, but low only low.

Or a relay on the low circuit and a small diode from the high cicuit to the low circuit (relay trigger). Diode only needs to drive the relay trigger this way.

Tom

 

[Buick Beginner]

OK

I know I've got 2 speeds, I just don't want to blow anything up. How it get's 2 speeds is beyond me, but it's there. - BB

 

[tminer]

The low and high speeds are on two separate circuits. If the fan is running on low when the high comes on, the low circuit is still energized and therefor both green and yellow are at 12V. So you have high speed.

But if the fan is off when the high speed circuit is energized then only the green wire is at 12v and you may only be at low speed. This would happen via the delay relay because it energizes the high speed circuit via an unswitched power source (on with ignition key off). The low speed circuit is switched off when ignition key is off.

It might also happen if you turn on the A/C before the engine has warmed up enough to turn on the low speed fan. This is easiest to test.

Tom

 

[TurboSmart]

Seems that they are like the Altima fans in terms that they are low speed using different set of windings.
You power one set, either color = low
Provide power to both sets = high speed.

Keep in mind the polarity though. you can actually burn one set of windings if you try to reverse polarity.
Also, those dual speedfans draw a lot of power... a fan controller that ramps up voltage is highly recommended...

So, the RamCharger fans are dual speed.. ..interesting!

 

[turbo nasty]

14 year old post

 

[TurboSmart]

And still valuable information!!