buffalo fan motor relay

[two-stroke-brit]

does anyone have a lead on replacement fan motor relay for my 73 buffalo.
thanks mark

[oldjapanesebikes]

Likely a few folks have used ones - but if that fails, then I think Reiner may be able to supply you an NOS one. He last had them listed at €40 or so.

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks Ian i will see if anyone offers up a used one if not i will go the Reiner route.
when i diconected the brown white wire from the fan and applied power from the battery the fan spun considerably faster , is this a normal condition??.
thanks mark

[oldjapanesebikes]

Sounds correct. I don't have a spare fan relay, otherwise I'd pull one apart to take a look, but I thought internally they were just a mechanical solenoid. If true, it may be repairable.

I could be all wet, but I was under the impression that when everything was connected up properly, what happened was the relay was held closed till the temperature sensor opened, which released the relay and closed the circuit to the fan - basically it was designed to fail open. If I get some time today I can take a look at mine to confirm how it works and get back to you.

[jabcb]

Took a quick look at the JC Whitney website for relays.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/jcwhitney/text ... allpartial

Looks like the fan motor relay could be replaced by a universal relay for perhaps around $10. But its a little tough picking the right relay from their website descriptions.

Maybe somebody with some parts catalogs or better online resources could find a suitable match?

[advant63]

the universal 4 pin relays are normally open, but i believe a 5 pin bosch style relay have a normally closed circuit through one of their pins. 30 to 87a?
not concourse but functional (and cheap).

[Coyote]

Overlooked? Mark, unless you are doing a resto and I don't think you are, you're best bet is to remove the fan and all its associated crap and shelve it. Early on Suzuki deemed the fan unnecessary and dropped it completely in late 73 - early 74. I can tell you that the 77 I had never broke the middle of the temp gage, even on 105 degree days. It's pointless and useless so why f**k with it?

[oldjapanesebikes]

It's pointless and useless so why f**k with it?

Well - its all of those things , but for that model that's how they were delivered from the factory. When I rebuilt my '73 I made sure all the fan bits worked properly - and I will do so for my '72 when I get to it. For both my '76s I have no plans to retrofit fans as they didn't have them to begin with - and my '75 is a custom so I did whatever I felt like doing. What Mark does of course is up to him !

Different strokes for different folks - right ?

[H2RICK]

advant +1.

That's exactly whay I posted in the original thread on this subject.
Those relays are cheap and durable and rated for 30 amps so should last a good long time.
Of course, you could always go Coyote's route and bin the whole works.

[Buffalo-guy]

If you're still of the mind to go with the fan relay, I'm quite sure that I have one, or maybe 20. Let me know, and I'll dig one out and send it to you. Just to add to the indecision, I remember back in the day, one of the bike mags did a test to see what it took to get the fan to cut in. They put a K model into a closed garden shed, and ran it at high idle with no air movement,,,,,,,,for something like 65minutes before the fan cut in. It is that type of sinario that prompted the factory to discontinue it's use. In almost 39 years of living with waterbuffalos, I've never had one cut in on its own. The RE5, on the other hand, is a different animal all together. 2 minutes of stop-and-go traffic is all it takes. Now, that baby puts out heat!! Anyway, let me know. Cheers.
Fred

[two-stroke-brit]

If you're still of the mind to go with the fan relay, I'm quite sure that I have one, or maybe 20. Let me know, and I'll dig one out and send it to you. Just to add to the indecision, I remember back in the day, one of the bike mags did a test to see what it took to get the fan to cut in. They put a K model into a closed garden shed, and ran it at high idle with no air movement,,,,,,,,for something like 65minutes before the fan cut in. It is that type of sinario that prompted the factory to discontinue it's use. In almost 39 years of living with waterbuffalos, I've never had one cut in on its own. The RE5, on the other hand, is a different animal all together. 2 minutes of stop-and-go traffic is all it takes. Now, that baby puts out heat!! Anyway, let me know. Cheers.
Fred

thanks fred ,if you can spare one i would be eternaly grateful,living in texas ridding two up tends to push the neddle to 3/4 hot on the temp gage, and at the frequent stop signs the fan was comming on often.
do you still have my address?.
thanks mark

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks to fred i have a replacement relay,
i installed it today but now the temp gauge seems to have stopped working is there a method for checking the gauge or have i made a rookie mistake somewhere.
cheers mark.

[H2RICK]

The orange wire TO the gauge should have full battery voltage to it when the key is in the ON position. Check the orange wire to the gauge to be sure you're getting battery voltage TO the gauge. Have your meter set to DC Volts.

The other side of the gauge has a solid black wire that goes through the harness and then to the thermo-sensor on the thermostat housing.
Use your meter to see if you have battery voltage at the black wire where it connects to the termo-sensor. Turn the key ON and put your meter positive probe on the black wire's connector on the thermo-sensor and then put your black probe onto a good ground....like the battery negative terminal. Again, you should see battery voltage.

If you have low or no voltage at either of these two places you've got a bad connection somewhere. Track it down, fix it and test again.

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks rick i will get to it at the weekend.
cheers mark

[two-stroke-brit]

The orange wire TO the gauge should have full battery voltage to it when the key is in the ON position. Check the orange wire to the gauge to be sure you're getting battery voltage TO the gauge. Have your meter set to DC Volts.

The other side of the gauge has a solid black wire that goes through the harness and then to the thermo-sensor on the thermostat housing.
Use your meter to see if you have battery voltage at the black wire where it connects to the termo-sensor. Turn the key ON and put your meter positive probe on the black wire's connector on the thermo-sensor and then put your black probe onto a good ground....like the battery negative terminal. Again, you should see battery voltage.

If you have low or no voltage at either of these two places you've got a bad connection somewhere. Track it down, fix it and test again.

hi rick i found the problem it was a broken wire (the black connector to the thermo sensor.)but when i check it with the meter the readout goes up and down like crazy i suspected i have another short elsewere too.
thanks mark