I was all primed for a drive up into the mountains this past weekend.
I was to meet some friends for a good 10 mile hike up in Shining Rock
Wilderness. The weather was fairly cool and sunny, the trees were just
starting to show color, and I was stranded in the foothills with an
overheated Spitfire!
I was stuck in some traffic after driving about 80 miles, and I saw
the temperature gauge moving up the scale. Then I smelled coolant and
got off into some shade right away. Coolant was spurting into the
overflow bottle and the fan was not running. After everything cooled
down some (and traffic started moving) I filled the overflow bottle
and headed out again. I coasted down hills and used the OD to keep
engine revs down. The temp gauge wasn't registering anything AT ALL
at this point, but there was no steam coming up. After about 30 miles
I stopped for a LONG cooling off period. I hot wired the fan to the
battery and it worked fine. I don't know how the fan temp sensor works,
but it has two leads to it so I shorted them, but no fan. The belt
seemed a little loose so I tightened it up. Then I took out the
thermostat and observed good movement of coolant. So I left the
thermostat out and drove home.
Later the thermostat seemed to work fine; it opened when boiled and
closed when cooled down. Today I drove into work with the thermostat
back in. The temperature gauge seems fine, but the fan never kicked in,
even when I let it sit running for awhile. My Haynes manual shows the
fan working off of a relay and also shows a fan fuse. I THINK I found
the relay under the dash on the left, but where is the fuse? Is it
separate from the fuse box on the fire wall? Those all looked fine.
Tim Gaines
Clinton, SC
1980 Spitfire
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