Dry, dudes and Datsuns,sounds like re-hab!

 

the prius part...


I love parking by them..

 

Greg in France wrote: "Ensure the aux electric fan is wired to come on all the time the heater/aircon unit is on (easy to do, just run a wire to the fan positive from the aircon compressor clutch activation wire"

To which I say: Any hints as to where that might be? I see two wires going into the belt driven A/C unit on top of my engine. I'm a simpleton, I know but I'd like to make this one small mod a reality in my car but I'm not clear which is the clutch activation wire.

Thanks in advance,
Rhett

 

Rhett
When you turn on the aircon, one of the wires to the compressor goes live to activate the compressor clutch. If you disconnect the two wires at the plug, aircon on, ignition on, engine NOT running, one will be live and one will not. Identify the wire that is live with a test light or meter, this is the wire you want.

Once found, next find the thermostatic switch on the inlet to the water pump. This will have two wires going to it, and the switch looks like a big brass nut with two wires coming out of it. Again, ignition on, engine NOT running, test each of the two wires to see which is the live one. In this case also the one you want is the NOT live one.

The purpose of the thermo switch is to activate the aux fan when the water gets hot enough. The NON live wire connects to the aux fan relay and carries current to it when the thermo switch closes. If you follow the non live wire from the thermo switch you can find an easier place to do the following:

Make a bit of wire to join the live wire from the compressor to the NON-live wire from the thermo switch. Now, when you switch on the aircon and whenever the compressor is activated by the system, current will also flow to the aux fan and it will run.

Greg

 

That sounds like something even I can handle. Thanks Greg!

 

yay...back from work and into the land of Oz

Im ready to take on this radiator job with Clarke next Thursday. Checked the packages that came in. Seems like hoses and bits n pieces are all there that we ordered. Even got my speedo and the growler badges imma swap out for my leaper...but thats for another thread...anyway back from work means time to enjoy my two favourite geese

 

Maybe you should bring both Geese with you Paul, I don't mind a grey(lol).
I hope my OEM mud flaps and oil pressure gauge sender were in the box of parts?
Looking forward to pulling your car to pieces, hope it all goes to plan and we can rebuild it.

 

Great News Bud

Any idea just how long the job is likely to take?

 

I think we can do it in 24 hours OB. We will stretch it out to include Scotch whiskey of course.

Clarke imma take some photos soon and send them to you mate. Looks like there is some mud flaps there and also a coil.....oh and a bottle of whiskey....wait....i threw that in....ha ha ha

In the meantime i gotta install the growler and new speedo.

Clarke ill send ya a message tomorrow mate

 

About 3-6 hours, but as Paul says there will be a beer and whisky break in there somewhere.(over night with a BBQ,I'm guessing)
Having never worked on a V12, we have allowed 2 days. We do have to wait for the radiator, and when it is ready it will be after beer oclock.

We can throw hoses and thermostats at it while we wait...and drink beer.

 

Rhett
Something that has just occurred to me: with this mod there might be (NOT saying there will be) a possible condition where (a) you have the aircon switched off (mine never is) and (b) the water heats up and trips the thermo switch which starts the fan and thus, because the wire to the fan is connected to the aircon clutch feed, the aircon clutch is activated even though in the cabin the aircon is off.

If you get any odd affects under this set of circumstances, repeat if, the simple solution is to wire a diode into the wire you have installed. A diode is a one-way current device which will STOP any current backfeeding to the clutch (in the above described circumstances) up your newly installed wire; but still let current go down it to activate the fan. You will need one that can hold 12v and say 15 amps.

As my car came OE from the factory fan-always-on with the aircon, I do not know for sure if this diode is needed or not in the OE wiring.

Greg

 

Sound like you will be having quite a party!

Do yourself a favour Bro and before you take her over to Clarkes, loosen off the bolts that hold the 'Gas Struts' on the bonnet, as they either undo easily or can be a real pain in the Butt.

You could easily waste an hour or two, if they won't undo.

 

Thanks Greg. I don't generally use my A/C except when I turn on the heat (because fan=a/c) or need to defog the windscreen. Summers here are generally mild. I'll hopefully get to do this next weekend. Can you think of any reason why I wouldn't want to include the diode, just in case?
Thanks again,
Rhett

 

No, put one in, cannot do any damage. But if the aircon is turned off (rather than a high heat setting, actually off on the RHS knob) the mod we are discussing will not do anything!

Greg

 

27 beers gone and 1/2 a bottle of Paul's best duty free scotch done with ice(made from water). Paul has retired for the evening! Just at starting time.

As you say in the USA, three strikes and you are out! After the third attempt at reversing into my garage(with enough tyre chirping to bring the neighbours out) Paul was out of the drivers seat and I got to floor another car up my drive in reverse into a space you cannot see.......one attempt, perfect,no damage to car or house.



Rad out ,hoses done, beer consumed then we had lunch. Jacked car and checked over IRS while consuming more beer(exactly as Grant Francis said it would be....IRS sweet and number of estimated beers consumed)


Then a phone conference with "Grant Francis" to make sure we were on track, more info(setting timing) for tomorrow given and picked up rad from shop and retired up to the BBQ for the evening.


Cooked BBQ while having scotch and beer, rad back in tomorrow.



Radiator shop claimed 60% blocked.

 

Your're right there, not normal car owners. Paul has a massive amount of enthusiasm and keen to have a go. I have 30 years of working on my own cars up my sleeve and armed with the model specific info from forum members, not a difficult job.

No mechanical fan, just twin 12" electric fans.(probably 14" after measuring my own that look identicle)




Timing a tad out? it was retarded as far as the disy would move, all sorted now.

Removing the radiator was fairly easy compared to others I have done before, lots of space on the XJS to work with. Bonnet on still left ample work room. I thought the V12 would be harder to get around. Only had to cut one hose and that was because it was stuck on with silicone(heater hose that connects to bottom hose outlet on rad) .

Hardest part of the job was replacing the three hoses on the bypass pipe across front of engine without removing air con compressor. But we got there eventually after removing oil breather housing.

After a chat with Grant francis we discovered removing the compressor would have been the easy option.

Bleeding the cooling system was straight forward and a lot easier than assumed.

If you want a challenge, try removing the radiator and water pump on an XJ Cherokee! Way less room to work, 4 litre engine shoe horned into a compact SUV. You would not believe what you have to remove to get the fan clutch off alone. Then bleeding the system is a dark magic no one should have to attempt, 17 years with that car I had it worked out in the end.




When I was driving my daughter to work this afternoon, she snapped these picks of a very happy looking Jag owner heading for home with a refreshed cooling system.

 

Congrats etc. great job and an unblocked rad will make a big difference. FWIW and just in case you still have problems, I suspect that twin 12" fans might not be enough. It was not on mine. You can get in a 12 and a 16, but what they pull is the most important thing. Grant has an Aussie fix from an Aussie car that works a treat, if you did not already know.

Greg

 

Just had a look at my fans which I am certain they are the same unit Paul has(a common Aussie fix) Measured, they are 14" . (12" was just a guess)

 

First of all big thanks to Clarke for his generosity and all the time and effort put in. Thanks mate. Had a ripper time. It was good fun. Even if I was a little hung over this morning lol

Well, I am happy to say I sat on the N all the way home without any dramas. I am still yet to try her out on the original hill climb up near my way but Clarke and I tested her on a very similar course today near his joint and we had good results.

One thing I did notice is that my temp gauge does seem to drop a fraction when I kick in my air conditioner fan. For those that don't know, as mentioned above, I have a twin fan setup that sits on my radiator, as opposed to original singular fan sitting on the pulley side. Anyway, I have a switch inside the "cockpit" that turns on my A/C compressor fan which is on the LH side of the rad, whilst the Aux fan is on the RH side of the rad.

So, when I am driving along, windows down, no A/C, my AUX fan will come once it reaches temp, or I have a bypass switch inside as well if I want it on all the time. Either way, just the one fan to the right (my drivers side) runs.

Now, if I have the air con running the fan on the LH side comes on as well, so then I have two fans running.

Also i have a separate radiator for the transmission which sits at the front, shes not plumbed into the main rad.

So I think all in all we hit the nail on the head and I'm super pleased. I learnt a tonne more about the Blue Goose and also about cooling systems in general. Clarke certainly has alot of experience.

Well, Ill post back next week if I get to do my final test on the hill climb, else I think were good.

Thanks to everybody else for their input also.

Cool banannas

 

Just a little hung over?

I pulled up just fine! Apart from a hand full of headache tablets....