Windstar electric fan placement

[NO_SPRK]

The flaps are there for slow traffic use. When flying down the highway the flaps let air through. When sitting in traffic they get sucked flat against the shroud helping the fan pull more heat from the radiator.

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[bike-maker]

I'll get the fans up and running, and try using them through this next summer, and see if I want to change anything. Like adding flaps or a controller.

Anyway, some more progress today;

Fans are permanently mounted up to the radiator.

Here's what they look like from over the top of the driver's side fender;

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Here's a shot straight down so you can see how close to the engine everything sits;

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Above pic shows that the "longer" motor (right side) actually sits back behind the power steering belt. In order to slide the assembly in place, I have to pull the power steering belt off, and also the sheet metal cover that goes over the larger fan (left side). The upper radiator hose can be kept in place. If I did it again, I would make the shroud thinner, which would allow the shroud to be pulled out without removing anything. Also note I have deleted the AC from my truck, although I do have a York compressor that I will mount in the standard AC compressor location for an on board air setup. The belt position on the York should be very close to the stock setup, but if it gives me problems, I was already aware of the ability to run a second bigger (thinner) motor to gain some more room.

To answer a previously asked question, the shroud is 2-1/2" thick + about another 1/8" for the vacuum line around the edges of it.

And on to the electrical side of things.

I already have a row of DPDT switches in my dash, so I am going to use one of them to control the fans. Switch in the up position will turn one fan on; switch in the down position will turn both fans on.

Years ago, I made a little electrical box to house the electrical components for my own headlight relay mod. Used a couple relays and some Wago parts - their some stackable junction/fuse blocks that clip on to DIN rail that I scored from my previous work (company that converted buses into high dollar motor homes).

I was hoping to just add to this box, but in my infinite wisdom, I made the thing just big enough to fit the components for the headlight relay setup.

Here's what it looks like;

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With the lid on...

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This was back when I had access to all kinds of cool equipment; iron worker, brakes, shears, tig welder. Now I'm just working with what I have in my garage, but in classic *********** fashion (thanks, OCD), I decided to have a go at making a second electrical box to house the components for the new electric fans.

Broke out my last scrap of .080" aluminum and whipped out a box with a hammer, vise, and some good ol' redneck ingenuity. Didn't turn out half bad...It will just barely fit next to the radiator; in between the core support and the driver side battery.

Here's as far as I got tonight; box built, components installed. Just need to bolt the box in place and wire the whole mess together.
You can see part of the lid in the background.

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And on a side note, I was digging through my aluminum pile, and found this guy:

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It's a custom aluminum racin' bracket (even has speed holes in it) I made way back when that bolts to the fuel filter tower to mount a coolant filter off of it. I ended up mounting the coolant filter on the inner fender, and don't have a use for it. Any of you NW guys that are willing to swing by my house in Albany can have it...

 

[wildman7798]

That wirin', boxes, din rail, terminal blocks, just about bring tears to this old instrument techs eyes. Nice work. I just ordered some of these. Couldn't find anything US made so we'll see what the quality is but they should go along ways in fusing and organizing. Didn't mean to hijack- just wanted to show a decent way of fusing and organizing wiring. Again - Nice Work and Great looking setup. Top Shelf.

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[LCAM-01XA]

BikeMaker, looks like flipping the fan assembly over would have solved your clearance issues - the long motor then fits nicely between the water pump pulley and the vacuum pump belt without interfering with either (we're still talking about 1/2" clearance on each side, better make sure you have good motor mounts), and it appears that the flat motor even with the shield would still be in front of the plane in which the A/C (or York) compressor belt is running. Which brings the question why did you have to remove the shield during install, was it hanging up on the water pump snout? But yeah, that long motor got in my way big time - there's a chance you may run into this as well cause IIRC the York belt will wanna run right where the fan motor is now even if you don't give the York an idler like I did - so pretty much damned if you do, damned if you don't, but at least with the idler my belt doesn't flop around as much when OBA runs at low engine speed, and I'm also able to use the same belt for all three positions. So just keep in mind you may be swapping in the pancake motor when you drop the York in, seems like the easiest solution. Other than that, looks like it belongs in there, much more professional install than mine and mine ain't half bad to begin with.

 

[bike-maker]

Those fuse panels look pretty slick. The stock electrical systems in these trucks are less than stellar, there's not much of the original electrical left in my truck...Anyway, good option for those wanting to add extras on to their rig.

In hindsight, I might have been ahead to have flipped the fans upside down of where they are now but - it's too late now.

So I got everything wired up tonight. These fans really blow.....in a good way.
In case anyone is curious, I have upgraded to a 3g alternator.

Electrical box installed. Tucks right in there. If I wouldn't have to rewire everything, I'd move my other electrical box (for the headlight relay) to the opposite side. Did have to sawzall a lip off of the core support.

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With the lid on it. You can see in the background how the connector on the "long" motor tucks inside the power steering belt - here's about an inch of clearance at it's closest point.

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Then I tore my switch panel apart - reconfigured some things while I was in there, and did some pre-wiring for the on board air setup sitting on my work bench.

Since I was taking pics anyway, and I don't think I ever put up pics of my dash since since I got all of the gauges thrown in;
Crappy cell phone pic;

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From left to right; electric fuel pump; cold start advance and high idle in the up position, high idle only in the down position; on board air; fog lights; just the big electric fan in the up position, both fans in the down position. LEDS are lit when anything is on...so I remember to turn it back off. The bracket to the right of the panel holds my cell phone. Made this little holder years ago, then shortly after had to fish my dead phone out of the toilet (was my daughter, I swear). Came upon it this morning while digging through my scrap metal, and it just happens to be the right size for my current Iphone; so I screwed it onto my dash and finally covered the mess someone left from hanging a CB on there.



Looking down through the steering wheel;

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To the right of the steering column is the row of switches shown in the previous pic, to left the extra switch is a 3-way momentary switch. Up position is the glow plugs - used an electrical timer to light the LED to the left of the switch after about 10 seconds (adjustable with different resistors), and the down position is the starter. To the left of that is the ignition switch. The stock one is inop. Only thing that ever left me stranded with any of my IDI's was when that stupid pot metal linkage piece on the stock ignition switch let go. So I took this one out, smacked it with a sledgehammer a few times, threw it in the trash, and used a different ignition switch.




And here's one from the driver's perspective just for the hell of it...

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Enough side tracking, all I have left is to pick up a couple 10-32 wing nuts to replace the nylocks on the lid of the electrical box, and I'm calling this project done.

 

[bike-maker]

Forgot to add; I only had 1 30 amp fuse, so I ran them a bit on 25amp fuses, and nothing ever popped.

 

[79jasper]

I like that dash setup.
No room in obs trucks for all of that though.

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[kc0stp]

Gotta admit I like that dash as well although personally I would've ditched the stock speedo.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I like that dash setup.
No room in obs trucks for all of that though.

Aye, kinda the same issue with the bricks, there is some space for switches but nothing convenient for gauges (and it's even worse if you run a NP435 or T18 where 1st has the shifter almost kissing the dash). Alienturtle on here has a sweet setup going on with external fiberglass pods above the dash vents, looks a bit F&F but it's very well made and gauges are right there in front of your eyes all the time. For those of us without his fiberglass skills, not many options are available, pretty much the easiest solution seems to be to get one of those shelf units and line it up with gauges This here is great for the '80-'86 dash tho, really nice work. Out of curiosity, what are the small gauges above fuel-voltage-fuel on the center panel? Also why the '87-'91 steering wheel, it kinda looks out of place there.

Cool electrical box too. One thing I always wondered is how much current do these fans draw when starting up, well the fact that BikeMaker runs fast-blow fuses and still hasn't blown them suggests it's below 25 amps. In the interest of science tho, I would sacrifice a few fuses to see what the limit actually is

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Very, very nice work

As a reward: take tomorrow off

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

One thing I always wondered is how much current do these fans draw when starting up, well the fact that BikeMaker runs fast-blow fuses and still hasn't blown them suggests it's below 25 amps. In the interest of science tho, I would sacrifice a few fuses to see what the limit actually is

I would also be interested in what these fans pull, especially on start up. I ended up going with a Lincoln Mark VIII fan as everything I read back in my 5 liter days said that the Taurus fans were good, but the Siemens designed Lincoln fans moved more air with less in rush current. The in rush is kind of a big deal on a Mustang (wimpy charging system) but I always felt like if I was going to do the surgery to put an electric fan in, I wanted to put the most efficient air mover I could find. After all: what's the sense in removing the big power sucking mechanical fan if you give it all back in additional alternator draw.

I second the fast blow fuse "sacrifice in the name of science"

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Well the thing with the e-fans is mostly being able to turn them off entirely when they're not needed, which is pretty much most of the time if you DD your truck with light loads and don't spend too much time stuck in traffic. But I know what you mean, if my truck was equipped with the short wide radiator I'd be running two Mark VIII fans side by side. But I got the tall and narrow rad, so Windstar fans it was. Do you have pics of your Mark VIII fan install ? Also, I do seem to recall Riotwarrior posting pics of a newer Chevy 1500 e-fan assembly and it looked like two of those can be used on the tall and narrow radiator...

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

I don't have any installation pics because I have rocks in my head, but I only ran one fan, using the factory shroud, factory two speed harness, and two remote relays. As I recall, the motor on the fan was pretty close to the water pump pulley, but there was enough room to change a serpentine belt without removing the fan. Overall it was really a pretty simple mount to make. Again, I wasn't worried about covering all the radiator with fans/shroud: remember, I ran without a fan for two or three summers with no issues outside of not being able to run the air conditioning sitting in traffic on a hot day.

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Sorry for the crummy pics, I sold the truck before I got to tidy up/document the installation.

 

[asmith]

That is a damn fine looking dash!! also very nice clean install. these electric fans are on my Long Long list of to dos for my truck. thanks for the write up, very helpful.

 

[icanfixall]

Nice work and a fine writeup too. We need more of this kind of work being done here.