> I know Jack Brooks had an electric fan in his TR3A.
> Jack? You there?
George, et. al.
Yes, I am here, barely... Geez, George, I just got in. <smile> I stayed
too late last night at the Triumph club meeting talking about VTR-99. Also,
I'm on the digest so I just got the message this AM, but thanks for thinking
of me. ;-)
*****************
Morning Mike,
Here's what I did:
I eliminated the mechanical fan entirely, by cutting the fan extension off
at the base near the pulley, adding a plate across the fan hub flange to
support the pulley bolt.
I added four 1/4 - 20 studs on the outside of the radiator to bolt up to. I
installed the fan as a puller(behind the radiator), as this is considered
the most efficient way to mount it. I've considered adding a piece of
rubber fuel line hose around the perimeter of the ran to isolate it from the
radiator, but it's been bolted up to the studs with nyloc nuts, so there
does not appear to be a vibration problem. The fan hides pretty well in the
engine bay, if having an electric fan in the bay bothers you.
The fan I used is from Scott's Manufacturing (see the monster list) 13 inch
diameter fan. The mounting holes line up almost perfectly with the edge of
the radiator. The lugs on the fan are designed to be enlarged and they
required a slight enlargement to fit the radiator. The fan draws 6.9 amps
(I measured) which my stock generator has no problem providing with the head
lights OFF at idle or head lights ON at speed). BTW - You can't hear this
fan running from inside the car, when the engine is running and a stock
exhaust. It can be heard from outside the car.
You must be careful to avoid interference between the fan and the cross
member on the front of the engine. My fan is mounted as high as possible on
the radiator and clears the top of the cross member by less than an inch.
<Whew!> Take measurements before you take everything apart Also, since the
water temp is higher at the top, the cooling air is more effective here,
albeit a minor amount.
I also added a thermoswitch in the top header of the radiator to control the
fan and only run the fan when the ignition is on, hence switched power
source. My fan relay is mounted just below the directional flasher, in the
same hole in the firewall. This location meant I didn't have to drill a new
hole and it was close to the fuse box, where I got the power from. Also, as
long as the radiator was off the car, I had it boiled out, tested and
painted.
Right now I am sorting out the new engine (50-60 miles). The 160F
thermostat combined with the 180F thermoswitch seems to be a great
combination. A 160F T-stat starts to open at 160F and goes full open
somewhere before 180F(I believe). The fan goes on at 180F and off at 170F.
Perfect overlap for minimizing the fan running, without letting things get
too hot. I'm debating the merit of adding a switch inside the cockpit to
manually turn the fan on, but short of thermoswitch failure, I can't see the
need for it.
This is the first modification I made which is easily non-reversible, but I
am really happy with it. Fan hub extensions are plentiful and cheap. Also,
if I wanted to restore the radiator to original, the studs could be ground
off. The thermoswitch bung (the threaded adapter) would be more difficult
to repair, but I put it on the Front of the radiator, so the only way it can
be seen is up through the grill.
Mike, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I apologize, but
I did not take any pictures of what I did. This is especially unfortunate,
as the new zinc plated nyloc nuts on the gloss black powder coated
crankshaft pulley (thanks FT) look awesome.
Best regards,
Jack (donning his non-concourse Nomex) Brooks
1960 TR3A
1974 Norton 850 Commando
Hillsdale, NJ
My car show: http://www.NJTriumphs.org/westwood/home.html
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