Hi David,
One way to help out a rad hose is to wrap it in 2 or 3 layers of electrical tape
before installing it. The tape adds a little strength and protects the hose from
oxidation, ozone, etc. I don't know how well this would work with the
cloth-wrapped hoses. I always end up with the plain rubber ones.
David Moag wrote:
<snip>
> Second question: something seems amiss with my cooling in general. I added
> an electric fan with a thermostat, and it used to come on when the gauge is
> between 1/2 and 2/3. Now it doesn't come on at all. Maybe it's an electric
> issue (have not checked yet), but it also seems to me that the radiator is
> not getting hot enough. The thermostat must be opening (otherwise the top
> hoses couldn't keep breaking, right?) but I've just got a deep down feeling
> that I am not getting good circulation into and out of the radiator. The
> temp gauge is going much higher than it did before, and turning on the fan
> via my manual over-ride switch doesn't seem to have much effect on it.
>
> Any ideas what I may be dealing with here?
Sounds like a bad contact somewhere between the thermostat and the fan. If the
manual override doesn't help, the usual problem is a blockage in the rad or a
hose, or maybe a stuck thermostat.
I also have an electric fan. It worked fine until last summer, when the TR
started overheating in stop n go traffic. The problem turned out to be the
inline fuse holder. Over a long period of time, it gradually accumulated crud on
one end of the fuse. The crud was a partial insulator, which gradually slowed
down the fan. It also created a hot spot. The element in the fuse warped, but
never blew. This went on until the fuse holder got hot enough that it partially
melted and the spring popped it apart. With the new fuse holder, the fan runs
considerably faster. The engine hasn't overheated since.
Good luck with it.
Pete Fullam
63 TR4
Original owner
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dave Moag
> 62 TR3B (having one of those days)
> 77 Spitfire
|