Testarossa Radiator and Oil Coolers Fans

Brian, I really think that it's a combination of issues that causes the radiator fan problems. Obviously the age of the car, fuse board, length of wire run to the fans, and of course, the age of the fans and the technology that was around at the time they were made and fitted to the cars.

I would like to eradicate the requirement to use the actual wire run that goes all the was from the fuse board to the fans and replace this with a nice short power run through a length of modern fine strand copper cable. Hence now that my board and burnt plugs are repaired and operational, this would be a great time to utilize the original power feed to the fans and turn this into a trigger wire for a seperate relay.

Here's my current thoughts and I welcome feedback and further input.

The 355 has a pair of remote battery terminals in the engine compartment, under a small cover. This gives the owner the ability to jump start the car as required, fit a trickle charger nice and easy, or even use the rear points to power accessories like a lamp or small air compressor whilst on the road.

Obviously the Testa doesn't have these but I wonder if it wouldn't be a bad idea. Something like these remote battery charging posts would be ideal:

http://www.pitstopusa.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=94

Anyway, if you ran a new battery cable from the starter motor back to these posts you could then take power from the posts to anywhere in the engine bay very easily. You would just have to remember to remove that additional wire to the starter when the engine was dropped.

Alternatively you could cut into the cable from the battery before the connector plug on the lower chassis and then feed to these remote battery posts. That way there wouldn't be anything to change when doing a major.

Then fit a small fuse block into the engine bay and run a new power cable to each fan via a relay using the original fan power source to activate the relay. If the right time and effort was put into the project it could be made 100% invisible, except for the battery posts which you need to have access to or you defeat the purpose of them.

You could tap into the same post to supply power for the two fuel pums also, therefore removing altogether those components that seem to be playing havoc with our aging fuse boards and plugs.

 

Steve, this is what I use, a fantastic little tool and cheap as chips.

https://www.redhillsupply.com/30-Amp-Fuse-Buddy-Tester---ATC-Blade.htm

Simply remove the fuse and stick this tool in the fuse socket and it reads up to 30 amps. Best $20 tool around I reckon.

Even cheaper here: http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/esi304b.html
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Steve, scary part of mine is the instant spike to +30 amps on start up, which is enough to blow the fuse had it lasted a couple of miliseconds longer.

It will be most interesting to see your results and do a comparison.

Shamile should grab one of these also and test his car in the hot Florida climate.

 

In the last month I've spoken to, or been contacted by three guys in various parts of the World with fuse board issues. Some pertaining to radiator fans, some to the other 'known' areas of the Testarossa curcuits that play up, but all have resulted in burnt pins at the fuse board.

We are certainly starting to see issues here, and with more and more frequency as these cars get older.

We appear to have identified a number or pottential 'problematic' curcuits:

- Radiator fans
- Oil cooler fans
- Fuel pumps
- Air conditioning system (fan and clutch)

We can either replace the fuse boards, although these are stupidly expensive or we can follow down my path and affect the repairs to the fuse board as I have described on my website (http://www.testa-rossa.info/fuse_panel_repairs.htm)

Once the fuse board is repaired everything will work again, but we haven't solved the problem, just put a band aid on it! We have to fix the actual problem that caused the fuse board to go into meltdown mode.

We know that certain items are drawing excessive power due to age etc, and with the electronic tool that I purchased, I can now check this current draw. (http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/esi306b.html)

Seems to me the repair of these problems requires a three (or even four) step approach.

1. Repair the fuse board
2. Repair the white blocks and the female conectors
3. Repair or replace the component causing the high resistance or current draw.

4. Remove the load on the 20 year old curcuit and use the original wiring to simply switch a new set of relays. (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138112299&postcount=3)

Steps one and three appear to be achievable, but step two is more difficult. Te restore the car to 'as new' condition, you need to replace the white block and the female conector clips with new ones but the parts listings don't show them seperately available. Seems you have to buy the actual loom and replace it. A hell of a big job and a serious cost outlay.

I managed to dig up an old post by Daniel at RicambiAmerica who seems to have some stock of the white plugs but identification seems to still be the problem as locating bars on the plugs seem to be different. (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137348749&postcount=5)

As Steve points out in this post (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137348796&postcount=7) plugs X, Y, K and J all have different locating bars on the plugs and are not interchangeable.

To properly repair these connectors we need to get actual part numbers from Daniel that we can add to the Testarossa parts database and associate these with plugs K, J, X and Y. Also required is a part number for the female connectors that fir into the white plugs.

Then we can fix our dodgy fans or pumps.
Repair our boards.
Replace the burnt plugs / pins and kep our cars looking smart and original.
And then fit additional relays and power supplies as required to lesson the load on the 20 year old system.

I'll pull mine apart again soon and get some pictures of the K, J, X and Y plugs and get these to Daniel so we can take this repair to the next step.

 

I totally agree with Brian and I'm currently building two looms for my cars that incorporate new power supplies to the 'troubled' systems and only use factory wiring to trigger the new relays.

I will venture however to locate two new sets of plugs and connectors to keep mine looking 'factory' at the fuse board end.

 

Here are the pictures of the sockets on the fuse panel.

Now we need to see if Daniel can match these up to plugs and supply numbers for ordering them?
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Daniel supplied this image which appears to be the correct plug for Testarossa plug Y.
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And here is an image from one of Shamile's old posts which appears to show a Ferrari part number on one of the white plugs, which may indicate that it has been changed at some time.

This is a 12 pin plug and appears to have been removed from the Testarossa K position?
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Here's a picture of the fan and it's mounts. Might help to verify Kerry.

High res available on request.
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The mounts on the 30102054 look nothing like the original. Given the tab mounting as shown on my pictures, mounting this fan would take some fabrication and may detract from original finish.

The oil cooler fans I located mounted up EXACTLY to the original screw hole positions and the lower shroud was the same.

 

Sorry, I went here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/11-SPAL-ELECTRIC-PULLER-FAN-1390-CFM-SPAL-30102054_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742Q2em153Q2el1262QQcategoryZ33600QQihZ024QQitemZ370185230289QQtcZphoto

and the picture was totally different.

Now on the SPAL USA site I located this:

http://www.spalusa.com/store/main.aspx?p=itemdetail&item=30102054

Which looks really good.

 

And just in case somebody actually has their fans off and can measure up the mounts this will help:
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