I've been down that road as well. Actually, it was my wife who went down that
road. She was not too impressed. That intermittent buzz at low RPM was the 200
kilometer warning on the life of the fan clutch. I would have cried if it had
shot up and dented the newly painted hood. Oh ya, I had CAA tow it home as
well.
With the advice of the list I now have a '87 BMW a/c condenser fan ($15.00)
mounted in front of the re-cored rad. I had purchased a generic thermoswitch
which lodges between the fins to control the fan but I returned it. In my
collection of odds and ends I found that I had kept the fan switch from my '83
Nissan Pulsar when I junked it many years ago. The rad shop installed the
switch in the lower rad tank so it now looks like the electric fan was meant to
be stock.
Incidentally, I paid about $210.00 (including taxes) for the recoring. The
total cost was comparable to a new fan clutch. I seriously considered it for
originality. Engine efficiency and no whirring noise were what won me over.
Sorry, I don't have any pics of the project on my site.
Len Lubbers
'79 Spitfire
Ottawa, Ontario
http://www3.sympatico.ca/lubbers/spencer.htm
Ron & Susan wrote:
> Hi all, I've found an o/d setup for my Spit, so on the way out to get it
> installed the dreaded fan clutch decided to let go, and take out the rad!
> Thanks to BCAA(BC's version of AAA) a flat bed truck took my car the rest of
> the way(maybe the Only way to go out in an LBC? :) )
> so $160 later for a used rad and a MKIV permanently mounted fan water pump,
> and bright orange fan(expensive parts, but they were right in town at the
> local spitfire guy), we still haven't got to the o/d yet!
> moral?....
>
> CHECK THOSE FAN COUPLINGS FOR SLOP!!
>
> Ron
> '78 Spit (soon with j type)
>
> Vancouver
|