Electric Fan fitting (page 2)Electric Fan fitting (page 2)
Now to position the thermostat unit - surprise, surprise there seems to be nowhere!
First, I settled on fixing it to the coolant water bottle holder and laying the probe on top of the radiator upper pipe, and then covering it with foil to retain the heat, this worked on an old Capri I once had.
To test the fan and thermostatic switch, I wired the unit up straight from the battery, finally settling on fixing the relay to the fuse holder bracket using a 3mm drilled hole and a self-tapping screw.
Testing it I found the response
wasn’t very good so I decided to do it properly and remounted the switch unit,
making up a new bracket and placed the element into the top radiator
tube. For a seal, I
threw the “bit of rubber as supplied” in the nearest bin, and placed Aquaseal’s
permanent leak repair for pipes and water tanks around the capillary tube.
Then pushed the hose over the element and back onto the pipe.
I had used quite a lot of the Aquaseal so the hose pushed this back-over
and made a good seal. I added a bit extra around the outside just to make sure.
. (The Aquaseal is a two compound repair you have to rub/kneed together first and the leave it for at least 1 hour, preferably 24 hours, to fully set.) It worked a treat, no leaks at all.
Testing went well, very responsive to the temperature changes, so now I set about wiring it through the ignition so the fan only worked when the ignition was turned on.
After about an hour, crawling around the car, under the dash, around the
fuse box, etc., I eventually decided to use the supply for the water wash level
sensor as this was only live when the ignition was switched on, who really needs
a warning sensor for the washer fluid anyway, and its easy to wire up to, just
use an ordinary spade connector.
note : as this supply is just for the thermostatic switch the current draw should be okay, the actual fan supply is straight from the battery (fused at 25 A) and activated via a relay from the switch.
So, all done about 2 days work in all, although now I know what to do and with these instruction to help, one day should be sufficient.
And now for the test drive. The car warmed up very fast (and was much quieter) and whilst motoring away on the main roads, no problem.
When stopped, however, the temperature increased to about 105 C (221 F) and was only 14 C (57 F) outside, so something was wrong. Leaning over the front of the jeep, the A-bar was red hot ! I had wired it the wrong way round and it was pushing the air instead of pulling it. Simply swapping the wires over on the fan and all was cured. The Fan works great and all that is left to do now is to tweak the settings for the fan to start and stop.
WARNING: setting off on a corner
quite fast, I heard a terrible crunching sound. Pulling over I could see score marks on the back of the fan
motor from the pulley studs. Obviously
standing still the engine is steady but turning and accelerating moves the
engine in relation to the body work (and fan) and hence the meeting of two
parts. As soon as I got home, the
hacksaw came out and cutting off the end of the studs commandeered another 5mm
of space. No more noises since.
I hope this has been a good insight for anyone out there who is contemplating this modification or just interested in jeep modifications, but be warned, this could alter your insurance policy and/or void any warranty on your vehicle so be sure to check these things first.
To read a homepage about fitting an electric fan to a Grand Cherokee, or just for some more information, check out this homepage:
http://pirate.shu.edu/~butkusmi/fan.htm
It's the only other one I can find that describes an electric fan upgrade.