Decided to go manual on the fan switch

I am gonna take a shot at the best of both worlds! I will let my bike have its normal fanstat operation, but come this summer, I think I want a manual over ride switch. I know that it sounds crazy to some of you, but if you have sat in traffic 3 to 4 turns at the same stop light because of @#$% construction you may know what I am talking about. I havent figured all the wiring details yet, however I did this to a differant bike before ( in our sacto 110 degree weather ) so I am gonna do it to my new bike. I definatly have the right switch ( pics below ). It has a cap over the toggle like a missle lock, and its the same color as my bike. Also when toggled it has an led that lights up to confirm that the fan is running. I just need a little help in the imagination dept.... where do I mount it? I am askin cause I know alot of you are running toggles to your gen 1 and 2 bike fans, but I doubt you are just letting them dangle.... where is a good mounting point?

 

Interesting project. Are you going to use an on-off-on switch? Then maybe it could be an on-off-auto sort of setup.

Not sure how the mounting space on that gen is, but on 6th gen the black plastic inner cowl panels like to the left and right of the tank would be a possible spot for a switch like that.

 

Where did you buy that cool switch?Please let me know.

 

Yes I do know about the heat setting in hot summer traffic.

I put mine in the bottom of the dash area under the temp gauge. I have a headlite sw in the center under the guages. The switch is used to ground the fans. I tapped in to the second fan connector where they connect up by the frame. The one with 0ne black wire going to it. I popped out the contact and soldered a wire to it and ran it to the switch. The other leg off the switch to ground. Works good.

 

Rubo
most auto parts store carry those now - parts america - auto zone- pep boys

 

yes, mine was bought online, but your local kragens auto or something like it will carry them for about 10$

 

I live in Melbourne Florida....it's hot as hell now. I did the same, put my switch under the temp window. All I did was disconnect the 2 wires from the sensor under the bottom radiator and bring them up to the fairing and plugged them in. It was almost too easy.

Not sure if the pic will come out....I tried to get a low profile rocker switch.

 

Wiring is very simple; deciding where to mount the switch is hard.

What is that fancy switch, Mil-Spec?....it's way overkill.

The Home Depot= $4

 

That was difficult....I thought of putting it on the side or hidden as not to ruin my dash........but I found a low profile switch (round) and bit the bullet.

 

I'm glad I came across this thread. I have to bypass my fan when in trafic. I bought a new stock temp switch, but the temp gage gets to about 7/8 of the way before the fan kicks on. Plus the bike dosn't like to idle when it that hot.

 

hmmm. Had no idea that is was common on the first gen bikes. I just bought myself an '86 VF500F that had some "wiring improvments" made to it before I bought it. Long story short on the ride to the garage I keep it at, a wire pulled loose, shorted out the entire bike. Whole thing was a mess. He had an after market ignition switch in it, wires running everywhere. After taht wired pulled loose nothing seemed to want to work right. But the engine ran.

After I got the lights sorted out I decided to also run a manual switch for the fan. I found the power and ground that the guy had wired in for the fan, I simply hooked an inline fuse in, a switch that I mounted in the left hand side panel behind my left leg and ran it from battery to a pre-existing ground. Simple. works. dosn't look to horrible.