You mention that there's never any power on 85 but there is on 86. 85 and 86 are the two ends of the coil so there will be power on one side and ground on the other to complete the circuit. I'd say that 85 never having power is good, but you need to unplug each relay and ensure that 85 actually has a good ground path. It likely does, but it's such a simple test that it will only cost you time.
You have a '97 and I don't have the schematic for that, but I do have the schematic for our '08-'10 vehicles. On ours there is a third relay that switches between serial/parallel for the two fans, effectively switching them from low to high speeds. Instead of the 4-pin relays the ser/par relay has 5 pins with the extra one being a NC terminal. Here's a link to DropBox where I have the schematics. I paid $20 for them shortly after I got my car, then about a year later discovered this forum and have shared them with others.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4191695/08_chevy_malibu_complete.pdf
Look on figure 18 at the top.
Temporarily, just as a stop-gap measure, can you use either a wire or resistor to jump the sensor terminals? This would serve to trick the coolant circuit into thinking that there's a constant HOT signal, forcing it to turn on the fans and maybe still drive well.
Remember, the schematics above are not for your vehicle but might help you, since they are still GM. Companies tend to keep a wiring protocol for consistency. Ford does things a little differently but they're fairly consistent year to year on how they design them. GM is the same way.
You have a '97 and I don't have the schematic for that, but I do have the schematic for our '08-'10 vehicles. On ours there is a third relay that switches between serial/parallel for the two fans, effectively switching them from low to high speeds. Instead of the 4-pin relays the ser/par relay has 5 pins with the extra one being a NC terminal. Here's a link to DropBox where I have the schematics. I paid $20 for them shortly after I got my car, then about a year later discovered this forum and have shared them with others.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4191695/08_chevy_malibu_complete.pdf
Look on figure 18 at the top.
Temporarily, just as a stop-gap measure, can you use either a wire or resistor to jump the sensor terminals? This would serve to trick the coolant circuit into thinking that there's a constant HOT signal, forcing it to turn on the fans and maybe still drive well.
Remember, the schematics above are not for your vehicle but might help you, since they are still GM. Companies tend to keep a wiring protocol for consistency. Ford does things a little differently but they're fairly consistent year to year on how they design them. GM is the same way.
