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1500 - Electric fan conversion??

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tosoutherncars

tosoutherncars

Jedi Knight
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Hi all,

The fan clutch on my 1500 rumbles and vibrates for the first few minutes after start-up - makes it sound like the motor is about to explode! (I'm 90% sure it's not lower-end bearing noise. I hope.)

It seems like a pretty inefficient way to move air, and I'd rather not spend $200 on a new fan clutch. I'm considering an electric fan conversion.

Have others done this? I would appreciate as much advice as possible.

- Puller vs. pusher setup?
- Brand, size, etc?
- Thermostat / relay?

...and so on.

Best,
Duncan
 
The thinnest fans I've found are 2.5 inches. Soooo, I think you might have to go with a pusher setup, but I'm not familiar with the clearance in the 1500 cars.
 
There isn't much clearance between the engine and the radiator.

Mine has the fan mounted in front of the radiator, and it has the relay with the probe that goes through the radiator.
So far I've not found the right place to put the probe so it actually turns on so mine is wired with a bypass switch that will activate the fan no matter what.

I intend to spend some more time experimenting with probe placement this weekend, I emailed Derale support telling them I couldn't get it to activate so they mailed me a new probe.
Maybe I just have a bad one.

It's funny, on the way to work in the pre 6AM part of the day the car doesn't warm up even to 160F. Stays about 135F until I get off the freeway and it starts idling. Then I turn the fan on with my bypass switch.

On the way home, in the afternoon going uphill especially when it's warm outside the car warms right up to 165F - 185F if I drive it hard. Fan on the whole way.
It pays to have a good temperature gauge, my PO installed a nice one, though I would rather have the old original gauge for sentimental reasons.
 
John Twist from University Motors in an old tech tip suggested putting a large hose clamp around the the fan clutch which will lock the fan to the clutch and stop the wobbling. Certainly saves the cost of buying a new fan clutch and the big hassle of installing it. The fan will now revolve at engine speed all the time. I did this to mine and the clamp has been there several years. I can post a picture later on if you would like. I have also installed a 10" pusher fan in front of the radiator and have it wired up to a switch so that I only use it when necessary.
 
Rick, that's very interesting... Have you removed your mechanical fan? I assumed that, with that gone, there'd be plenty of space! But I was looking at it with the radiator out.

yb710 said:
John Twist from University Motors in an old tech tip suggested putting a large hose clamp around the the fan clutch which will lock the fan to the clutch and stop the wobbling. Certainly saves the cost of buying a new fan clutch and the big hassle of installing it. The fan will now revolve at engine speed all the time. I did this to mine and the clamp has been there several years. I can post a picture later on if you would like. I have also installed a 10" pusher fan in front of the radiator and have it wired up to a switch so that I only use it when necessary.
Click to expand...

Excellent!! I've often wondered at the inefficiency of fan clutches... I'll try this, to start.

Do you find the pusher fan helps significantly?

-D
 
Yes, the pusher fan is all I need.
My other fan was removed.
 
Rick,
you wouldnt happen to have the manufacturer and part number of that fan? would ya?
also a good rad shop should be able to put a fitting in your rad so you could use a real probe. Bet it wouldnt cost much either. At what temp is your probe cut in temp at?

thanx
mark
 
I may me mistaken, but I think you get that exact fan at Advance Auto for about $50.
 
I'll look at it tomorrow and see if I can find any information about it.
 
You can eliminate the fan clutch by going to a '71 - '74 Spitfire water pump and fan which did not use the fan clutch.. Now the fan is always rotating at engine speed for better cooling.
 
Yrs ago I removed the fan on the motor and went with an electric fan. When you think about it, the mechanical fan takes a little power to move and our spridgets don't have much extra power. The electrical fan fits to the front of the radiator and I've never had problems with the fan.
 
Both the waterpump fan and the electric fan take energy (engine power) to move air and cool the radiator.

The power advantage comes from the fact that the waterpump fan turns all the time, taking power all the time. Taking even more when the engine is running fast when moving the air is already being done by the car moving through the air. The el fan can be temperature controlled, running mostly when the car is not moving and you don't need the extra engine power.

I'm definately going to an electric fan when the car is done, but I have the advantage that a Citroen BX fan will work just fine, and they cost nothing here. Just try to find one of those in America.
 
I just wished I could get an elec puller fan setup with the stock vert flow radiator. But it doesn't look like there is enough room.
 
A few years back my fan clutch started sqealing right before our local show and I didn't have time to get a new one so I took a sneaker shoestring and wrapped it around and tied it - could barely see it and it took up the slack nicely locking the two pieces together. Worked good! Got a new one later and fixed it right. My son and I still joke about the time we fixed the car with a shoestring!
 
Hehe, I hadn't heard that one.
 
Hi Trevor, How about a shameless plug for the British Bash June 1-2 here in beautiful Louisville Ky with upwards of 300 of the finest British cars around! See you there!
 
I thought about going with an electric fan with mine, but mine used to run hot at higway speeds so I went with the yellow plastic fan. I have two 1.8L subaru fans that look like they would work fine instead and I might try one of these once I get the car on the road and see how it does. First I would have to start out with the engine cold and remove the fan comepletely and get on the higway and watch the head hand and see if the highway airflow is enough to keep it cool. If so, then I will go electric. You can convert a puller into a pusher or vica-versa by swapping the polarity. Every one I have ever seen was the permanent magnet type with only two leads.
 
Oh, and for good placement of the bulb. I have used several of the generic fan switches with the adjustable setting on a few cars where the OEM part was just too high. I got several from JC whitney back when that was about the only place you could get one. I have one on my water colled motorcycle that has worked fine for 10 years. Those first ones showed how to put the bulb up inside a radiator hose until only the cpailary tube was sticking out. Then it came with a black sticky rubber material that you put around the caplillary tube and then slide the radiator hose up over it and the radiator hose connector and tighten it down with a good radiator clamp for a good pressure seal. I just did my ford ranger this way and it works ok. One thing I might do though is change mine to the lower hose. When I shut the truck off with the fan running it continues to run for a long time because the water pump is not running. If I restart the truck the heat hand drops immediately and the fan shuts of within 15 seconds. I wired my fan straight to the batterry with a fuse. Maybe I should use a relay and get a hot from the ecm or something so the fan shuts off comepletely when I shut the truck off.
 
yes I have done this. I run an electric fan on my 79 1500cc Midget. I only had to get two things:

1. Here's a link to the fan I purchased:

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&viewitem=&item=260107995250

Yeah, it was like the bargain of the century. I'm pretty picky about quality parts and even at the price this fan lives up to it. The guy swore up and down over these fans so I took a shot at getting one. It worked out.

As I was soon to discover, there is not enough clearance between the water pump and the radiator (I don't remember the depth- it was close), so I mounted the fan up front and use it as a pusher. It's a 10 inch model. If you can find a narrow enough fan, I measured 11.25 inches from the top to the bottom of the radiator, so my original intention was to shoot for a fan that size for mounting behind the radiator.
CIMG2929_resize.jpg

Trying to get tie wraps through the radiator was pretty tough. The fan came with mounting "software", but unfortunately my first attempt at mounting the fan was behind the radiator only to discover the clearance problem between the water pump and the radiator. Yes. I suppose it might have been a good idea to have checked that before I mounted the freekin' thing.

I also discovered that the fan would not clear the radiator mounting shield at the top (still too deep), so if you notice in the pic, the fan sits slightly lower than where the ideal mounting place would be. I had thought of modifying the mounting shield to get the fan to cover the entire core area, but it's working out ok. Besides, I'm getting a little tired of fabricating stuff at this point and hood clearance might be a problem.

2. One of my buds in my former Rustang days turned me onto this : a CSI digital temperature gauge from Summit Racing that is designed to turn on accessories, such as electric fans. The gauge is programmable and comes with all the hardware you need to run an electric fan: the wiring, sender and the fan relay. I set it to turn on at 190 degrees- same as the thermostat. Here's the link:

https://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=CSI%2D1225&N=700+115&autoview=sku

The gauge fits right in where the existing temperature gauge was.

CIMG2930_resize.jpg


I also use a 63 Amp Delco 10Si alternator in this vehicle, so I'm not sure if an electric fan setup will strain the original alternator.
 
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