are these standard spade connectors? (in fan relay socket assembly, 93 fleetwood

[dochawk]

[note: approach to opening was wrong, see below]
In another thread, I'm trying to figure out the problem with my radiator fans. The next step is to figure out which side of the relay the problem is on.

I think that the separate thread will make this easer for other folks to find this in the future when they need it.

I want to open the socket case because I suspect that something isn't properly connected there.



It is located against the firewall on the passenger side of the engine compartment.

To get it off the mount, the tab circled in orange needs to be *lifted* slightly; it has a nub that goes down into the shelf.  A small slot screwdriver  will do the job.

It then slides to the outside of the car about a third of an inch, allowing its two feet to go upward through holes.

[I learned this by taking the shelf off.  Not the way to go, but I figured that I would be able to see what to do.]

There is also a soft nub connecting it to the shelf; its location will become obvious when you try to lift it.  Squeeze the two sides hanging over the hole with pliers, and you can slide it out.

Then you reach the part where I'm stuck.

There appear to be releases in the green circles, with two more of the same on the backside.

I'm just not succeeding in releasing them.

I've tried small nails (you can see them in the picture) to hold the lever/springs down, but that doesn't let me budge it.

Any ideas?

I suspect/hope that I'll find a loose connection in it; at the very least, I'll be able to see if juice is trying to go to the wire to the fan.  [black/pink stripe for passenger side, black/deep red stripe for driver side]

If I can't open this to test voltage with the relay in place, I'm going to have to make some truly ugly loops of wire, and probably solder them to the old relay that still works!

[dochawk]

OK, that was the wrong way to try to open it.

at the bottom, each tab needs to pull out a bit, allowing the upper housing to slide away.  pull the tab you see (green arrow after disassembly) slightly *away* from the body of the unit for each of the four, and then it pulls away.



You can then gently, with a small screw driver, lift the tab (green arrow), and these white protectors slide out (the one on the right is already out):



 This gets you to the inside.

These sure *look* like garden variety spade lug connectors, but are they?

If so, I'll pull them with a needle nose pliers, and cross connect, one at a time, to see what I get.

First, though, I'll probe with someone behind the wheel flicking the AC off and on, to see what goes hot, and if the relay throws.

[fishnjim]

Before tearing your hair out, take the two top relays off and ring them out with a DVM and make sure one of them isn't fried.  It's just a wiring block, so not much else in there to worry about.

I'm not even sure those two side clips don't release the bottom part too and it lifts off?

[dochawk]

oh, I started there.

I actually have two new relays there; I get the same behavior regardless of how I position the working original relay and these.

Further testing and investigation found that the ground wire to the relay, dark blue and white wire/dark blue arrow, was bad.

I'm pretty sure at this point that these aren't lugs on spades from the socket, but the socket pins themselves.  I would love to have someone in the know explain that I'm wrong, but I'm just not hopeful.