I just got finished changing the failed low speed resistor for the oil cooler fan. I read the various posts and was expecting a real PITA job. It wasn't too bad though. Here's what I did:
Remove the front fender well liner.
Remove the headlight assembly (real easy).
Remove the cooler's top mounting bolt in the headlight well.
Loosen the nut connecting the top mount bracket to the cooler and let the bracket hang down.
Since the top bracket is hanging down, you can now lift the cooler just enough to take it off of the back lower mounting bracket and pull the cooler a couple inches away from the trunk.
Remove the sheetmetal plate on the back side of the cooler (held on by 3 small screws). This gives you access to the resistor's mounting nut. Looking down the back side of the cooler, you can now easily see and reach the nut for the resistor.
Remove the resistor's mounting nut.
Remove the small bracket between the trunk and the headlight well (one bolt in the trunk and one in the headlight well). You can now squeeze your left arm between the oil hoses and the trunk to remove the resistor.
Connect the new resistor to the plug before you mount it. It would be very difficult to plug it in after mounting.
When installing the new plate and resistor, make sure to get it aligned correctly. There is a notch sticking up in the sheetmetal mount that needs to lineup with the opening on the plate and resistor. You can't see the notch in the sheetmetal since it's so far back but you can feel it.
Obviously, put it all back together now.

Hope this helps someone.

 

I also took out my old oil cooler resistor this weekend. Took out the fender liner, took out the screw holding the resistor and simply pull out the resistor (by pulling the wire). I installed the new resistor not on the original location.

 

Amazing, I've just ordered a new resistor and I find the subject at the top of the list!

Thanks!!!

 

Pram,

I thought about mounting it in a different spot since it looked like there was no way to reach the original spot without removing the oil cooler. However, I couldn't find a convenient flat spot spot to drill a hole. After removing the extra bracket between the trunk and headlight tub, I could easily reach the original mounting spot so I just put it back there.

The mounting arm that you used seems to work fine. Did you have to trim part of the plastic fender liner? I seem to remember that there was a second feature to the fender liner that will interfere with your mounting position. It formed a downward facing duct that went around the big hole in the frame.

 

Mark:

I just play a little bit with the angle of the mounting arm so that the resistor will not be touching the fender liner. I ended up routing the wiring slightly different than in the picture so as not to interfere with the liner (no cutting on the liner)

HTH,