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Can anyone here tell me the gauge of the wires for the radiator fan controller harness? (You know, the one that melts?) Looks like 10awg-12awg for the power and ground, not sure about the signal line.
Last edited by David Lively; Apr 16, 2021 at 04:12 PM.
Trying to go down a rabbit hole you really don't want to go down by trying to wire through the upper connector.
Lets forget about wiring gauge for a second, and lets talk about the system in general for a second.
The stock radiator will pull about 18 amps with the fan on full blast, But the PWM was never meant to be run 100% of the time, but really about 40% of the time and the bigger problem instead.
So lets say we change the fan tables to run the fan 100% of the time to try to hold the motor temp at a lower temp.
On the stock system, it will be the upper connector that will do a melt down when the fan/pwm is run too much, and what we really want to happen in the first place. Attachment 48335485
Now lets say we say F-all and we are going to either hard wire past the connector and just run the wire straight to the PWM since we have lowered the fan rates with an after market tune.
Now all we have done is prevent the connector we want to do a melt down from over heat when the fan is run too much, down to the PWM that will do the melt down itself instead.
So, if the game plan is to lower the engine temp all the time by changing the fan table rates that did melt down the upper connector, we have to attack the problem the other way.
1. Need a better cooling radiator that is able to pull more heat from the motor.
2. Heed a fan(s) that is able to pull more air through the greater cooling after market raditor as well.
3. Since we may be running multi fans that will be running more often and pulling more amperage than stock PWM is going to be able to handle without doing a melt down itself, need a PWM that can handle the greater amperage demand. Hence dual fans will be pulling down around 45 amps, so we need a PWM (SSR), is rated for 50amps instead. Now that we have the amperage demand of 50 amps, and that the power wires will be run about 10', we can look up the gauge size of the wire needed for that system.
So a thread like this will take you down the correct path, since it covers the after market radiators, better cooling fans, and even a source on where to get a higher amperage PWM that will not break the bank as well. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ring-help.html
Hope this helps, good luck with your connector repair. FWIW, after mine melted the second time I hardwired it
Thanks! I jumpered around it before with some spade connectors and a short length of 10 gauge wire. That lasted about a year before it melted the spades. Looking for a better solution that doesn't involve spending $1500+ on a radiator and fans. The car is stock other than brakes and other bits. It seems ridiculous that this is at all necessary.
Been there, done that. The problem is the OEM Metripack 630 series connector is a bit undersized for the fan circuit. The 10ga. wire is OK & it uses a 60amp fuse, but the connector is rated at 46amps - at room temperature - and the amp rating drops sharply as temperature rises. They probably should have used the 800 series connector, rated at 60amps, but they didn't, and now we have to deal with it.
Some guys have replaced the M 630 with a higher rated connector and reported good results:
In my case I removed the connector and butt spliced (crimped and soldered) the wires. That was a couple of years ago and so far nothing has melted, even with the fan table modified to ramp the fan up to 90% a little sooner. Now water temp doesn't get over 220 in Houston summer stop & go traffic, before it would run 225 - 230.
-Never use spade connectors or any kind of crimp. Use an OEM fan plug (from any car, look at the wire size) And use relays that have a housing specifically for making high current contact with metal surface areas. Use solder to make connections in wire and plugs.
wear gloves, remove residues with paper towel and brake cleaner, twist wires together and solder, tape at different lengths,
Metricpak 800 versus Metripak 600. As you can see the MP 800 is more robust. At operating temp can take like 50% more current. The 800 the male tab is similar in size to a house socket. The Metripak 800 uses singles as far as housings. The newer C7 Corvette and high out put brushless fans use something called a Yakazi connector which is similar in size as the Metripak 800.
Last edited by double06; Apr 19, 2021 at 08:34 AM.
@double06
The Yakazi connector looks like a nice solution.
My concern here is that if I *really* fix this, and then I have a potentially-unrelated issue with the car in the future, the warranty could be invalidated due to the modification. Hell, I could probably cut up an orange extension cord and use the connectors - they're certainly rated for the current - but, if I wind up needing torque tube bearings or a rear main seal before the extended warranty expires (two years out), then I could be on the hook for a bunch of cash.
To be clear: I'm not concerned that the fix wouldn't work, just that evidence of it would not go over well when getting other repairs covered.
I'm tempted to wire another connector in parallel and tuck it out of the way somewhere, with a switch hidden under the ashtray. (And now I shall attempt to determine how to change my username.)
Last edited by David Lively; Apr 19, 2021 at 03:45 PM.
Don't sweat the warranty issues, since the warranty people don't do a thorough inspection (or even know what stuff is OEM) of the whole car to see if a wiring connector caused the wheel bearings to fail.
Also, do not buy the GM replacement connector, since it has smaller gauge wire than the Vette OEM wires.
I've re-done my wires 3 times in 13 years. They get hot and brittle, especially here in the desert.
Well... I've seen some really weird things, like denying a differential claim due to an ECM tune. I'm sure some big ticket items are going to fail within the next two years - 55k miles on a 2011. I'd rather have them covered than not.
Fan connector wire gauge
