possible to ground relays? if so where to ground it?

01silveralero · 02-23-2008, 12:25 AM

just wondering if it was possible to ground relays for example for the cooling fans and such.

cherrington17 · 02-23-2008, 12:35 AM

those relays won't work unless they are grounded.... so oldsmobile already beat you to it.

the standard automotive relay has 4 contacts. 12V in, 12V out, power in, and ground in. the power in and ground in, are the ones that make the relay function. its essentially an electric switch.

but i WOULD check to make sure your headlamp fluid is grounded. wouldn't want excessive charge to build up in there... that shazz is combustible!

01silveralero · 02-23-2008, 04:29 AM

well i actually meant to run it to something that when the car turns on then the relay tells the fans to come on...........for the curious my coolings fan used to be always on regardless of what. long story short the fusebox didnt to give up and now trying to figure out ways around it for the time.

lonnie · 02-23-2008, 06:07 AM

The one Cherry is talking about is for a single circuit, then there are ones for dual circuits. You have to chose between the 4 pin 30a relay or the 5pin 30a relay. I've always used the dual you have more options available to you. Keep in mind that you don't need a heavy load to switch the relay so you could simply hook it to a low voltage wire on the ign and switch the fans off of that, but I wouldn't switch both fans off/on off the same relay...I just don't believe putting all my eggs in one basket...a perfect example of that is say you hook it up to run off of one relay and the relay quits and you don't have a spare..then your screwed, but if you have each running on it own relay then if one quits then you have at least one fan running to get you where you need to to get it fixed.

cherrington17 · 02-23-2008, 08:12 AM

the problem i see with that, is.. he'd have to rewire the whole circuit. aren't the relays in with the fuses? I don't think they molded room for you to change the relay from a SPST to DPDT. (single to double for those who don't know the lingo)

lonnie · 02-23-2008, 11:44 AM

It sounds like he is talking about taking it off of the factory relays and wiring his own circuit.

lonnie · 02-23-2008, 11:48 AM

.......or why not just wire them through a switch...bingo bango problem solved.

cherrington17 · 02-23-2008, 11:53 AM

^ding ding ding. no reason to mess w/ the relays. just splice into the fan power and run to a switch that HAS constant power.