re: Electric fan kit?

[Dana Loomis <dloomis@domain.elided>]

If you want a fan, don't bother with a kit.  All of them, even the ones
sold by Alfa specialists, seem to use those awful nylon ties through the
radiator.  

Here's what you can do instead on an a 105/115 car: 1) Get a generic
electric fan (12 in. is the largest size that will fit, but 10 in. is big
enough to do the job) and a piece of aluminum stock about 1/2 in. wide and
3 feet long;  2) Pull the radiator out of the car, remove the mechanical
fan and the shroud; 3) Cut the aluminum to make two equal-length pieces
that will span the opening where the radiator was from left to right; these
will be the mounting brackets for the electric fan; 4) bolt or rivet the
brackets to the front side of the radiator support so that one is
positioned parallel to the ground at the height where you want the top of
the fan to be, and the other is parallel to it at the height where you want
the bottom of the fan to be; 5) Configure the fan to operate as a "pusher"
and mount it fan to the front side of the new brackets, using bolts for
easy removal.  

Now you need to deal with the electrical side of things.  The best approach
is to use a relay to direct battery current to the fan.  You also need to
decide whether you want a thermostat or a simple, manual switch.  If you
opt for a thermostat, the elegant solution is to take the radiator to a
shop and have them install a threaded fitting for it in the bottom tank.
You could use a GT6/Milano thermostat, but the thermostat for Fiats and VWs
(which is the same size) is easier to find and comes in a wider range of
temperatures.  If installing a threaded fitting seems like too much
trouble, you can get thermostats that install in the radior hose from
suppliers like JC Whitney.  Once the decisions are made, wire it up,
replace the radiator, hoses and coolant, and you're good to go.  The fan
will probably never come on when the car is moving.

Dana

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided