Replacement air fans on 308 gts

I have used Hayden fans for over 7 years on my 308s. They work great. However, if you are looking to stay as original as possible then a great upgrade that will bolt right in would be 308 QV rad. fans. They move more air than stock 78 fans and they seem to last a long time. The only problem is they can be fairly expensive.

 

I had the same animal dying under my bonnet.

Check the www.superformance.co.uk fans. They work fine, the fan is a bit bigger than the original, but fits fine.

No more howling wolfs under my bonnet!

 

I just put new ones in on my 1977...see Parts Thread in 308 Section...if you go aftermarket there is lots of stuff that will "fit".....

 

My cost on the exact replacement Lucas unit was 152.00 + tax thru some buddies with a BMW shop....it's a Jag part...

The new one even had the same sticker on it concerning rotation and polarity.....

 

Yes, the Jag boys wanted $250.00 for the "XKE" unit! LOL! My guy said:

"Man. Alan they are soakin' ya! List is only 205.00!"

I overnighted it in and did it in the driveway!

Now bear in mind your car is built differently in the front bumper area.
I just pulled my grill bars out and went to work. The four blades can be oriented such that they'll come out, in my car, thru the valence opening.

My RH one is out now!

Does your old one say "Lucas" on it? Did you find my posts in the Cross reference thread? Can anyone confirm they are the same? I do not want to steer you wrong but the put Hayden's in you do have to fab support brackets, and lose the OEM look.....

Way less than 11 hours, on mine, although you have to take it slow......they must have to pull radiator or bumper on the later cars........

 

My total was $170 for the one, plus I cut myself on the A/c condensor!

I'll get my second one this week if I cannot get it going.

 

This is an hour each job worst case. Access through the front wheel well on my car. Very easy job.

 

I installed 2 new Haydens on my 1977 308. I had to pull the A/C condenser to be able to push the plastic holding rods through. Be careful to not puncture any condensor or radiator elements. My fans were ~ $65 each at O' Reilly Auto Parts....

You'll need to remove the lower valance, and also, you may have to trim the bottom of the plastic shroud, to clear the valance when you slide it on, at least with the shallow USA valance...

Greg

 

Well, 1000K translates to $1,000,000, so YEAH, that's HIGH!

 

12"



Greg

 

Craig,

I too had a fan squealing like a banshee. It was the AC side. The regular one is beginning to squeak as well. You had asked about pulling them. I have a 78 GTS too. The lower grill needed to be removed. There were 6 screws. Two on the ends and two in the middle, easy access. There were two at right angles but they have a nut so you just have to get a right angle phillips in there and hold on with the socket wrench on the nut. The two in the lower middle were frozen on and twisted right off. They are threaded into a right angle steel bracket on the lower fiber shroud and I will attend to them later.

Once the grill is removed, there is good access to both fans and the horn in the middle. The A/C fan came out easily but I had to take the horn out too so that the fan blades could clear. You have to be careful not to dent up the radiator fins. There is a single nut holding a bolt that clamps the fan motor. Once the bolt is out, the bracket can easily be bent by hand to drop the motor straight down. Since I don't plan on doing this again soon, I am not too worried that I will fatigue the bracket by bending it. The fan is attached with two easily unplugged single connectors.

The fan has a rubber band around it for noise dampening. This slides off easily. There is a single nut holding the blade on but I waited to have the motor apart first so that I could hold the armature while removing the nut. There is a washer under the fan that is keyed with the shaft. In my case, this fell out in pieces. It is necessary, so that the blade won't twist on the shaft. I fabricated this with a washer and a thin file.

There are two bolts holding the fan housing together and they come off easily. You must grasp the fan and the front part of the housing together to pull the armature out of the rear portion of the motor housing with the permanent magnets in it. I say this so you don't slip the brushes off the armature and possibly damage them.

This is a real robust motor. I cleaned it out thoroughly but noticed that both bearings were quite dry. I relubed both sides and reassembled it with a light grease. There doesn't seem to be much play in the shaft so I could be o.k. Time will tell. There is a small screw in the rear of the motor housing that pushes the shaft forward. This was adjusted so that there was a negligable amount of play. The motor was then tested and sounded quiet as a purring kitten.

I will try and photo the second motor cleaning.

This is a pretty straightforward job. If your bushings are reamed or oblong in shape, you need a new motor. If it is just the front bushing, that one snaps out so you might find a replacement and save yourself the cost of a motor.

Good Luck,

Rjay

 

If the origional fans are in marginal condition I have sourced a fan motor that we have used as replacements after a small amount of conversion work (final testing underway now). Mount and look very much like the OE fan unit. Twice the air flow with the same current draw as a properly running OE unit. Have been testing them on a 246 cronic overheater and found that it eliminated the problem with 1 fan motor in 103 degree heat, stop and go traffic. Mounting the second motor just for over kill and to keep the OE look.

Dave

 

Care to share more info?

 

a/c condensor after the hayden platic through mounts were installed or do you run w/o any a/c?

Also I am with Clyde..info on uprated conversion for OEM fans...I know nick , the sponsor , here has some but I heard they were very pricey..

 

Good chance you can find a replacement bushing thats close enough so that a few minuites with a lathe will make it fit. At worst, get a piece of oillite bronze & have a machine shop turn out new ones.

 

You can easily fit the haydens in front of the a/c condenser. I have them on 2 of my Fcars right now. Work great.

 

Running these as test units until the end of the month when we will remove them, dissamble and inspect. Every morning they get a blast from the power washer before a drive. If they pass the test I will share more info. I was turned off by the Haydens due to the lg area of the center of the fan blade that shades any air flow. Proved to be more problems than benifit of the race cars due to blocked air flow at speed

Dave

 

I think the Hayden fan solution should be the easiest...are they? do they get the cooling job done sitting in traffic?

thanks..

 

Hi Clyde, what's your view on this...? On warmer days, my QV is getting a little too hot in stop and go traffic or even just city driving where I don't get to go much above 40 MPH. I'm pretty sure both existing fans come on when they're supposed to (at around 195 degrees), and I've got coolant in the car obviously (unlike the incident when i first bought the car). I've followed this thread with interest and I'd love to eliminate this problem but, not being mechanically knowledgeable (learning, learning learning), am wondering what the best approach is...
Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
J.

 

I agree with RJay. If it is making noise, but still working, you can probably fix it without replacing it. This motor as well as most other electric motors need only have the bearings inspected. But in my case I would not try to re-lube, I would try and replace them with a sealed bearing. If the bearings in there are sealed, just pull them find the manufacturere and number on the casing and go to your local auto parts store for a match. If no number, you can take the measurements and send them to these guys: www.bearingdepot.com.
Should be less than $10 each

 

This is the second fan in my ‘78, 308 GTS and I photographed it as promised earlier in this thread. I hope this is relevent enough to the first question so that it is not considered a hijack. I am not sure if the blades are factory but I think the motors are, because they are made in England. If folks recognize authenticity or lack of it, feel free to point it out. Forgive the overspray. The paint on the car is really good but I guess they forgot about masking tape.

Overall, these motors are simple and quite robust in design. I don’t understand why there was absolutely no lubricant on the two bushings. Since I am a “Sparky” by trade, I may not know about dry bushings. All I know, is that they squeaked, I added grease, and they stopped. There is a single bushing at the front and there is a single bushing at the rear of the main shaft. There is also a small ball embedded in the rear of the main shaft which rests in the little screw-in cup with a lock nut.

Be careful of those darned little springs holding the brushes. I swear, you would think after all the motors I’ve dissected that I would remember this. I lost one out of four. It was there one minute and gone the next. The other was easily fabricated from a ball point pen (not the skinny one at the front but a larger one in this pen I had lying around).

The rear main housings were painted gloss black because I wire brushed them clean and they had some coating that I probably stripped and I didn’t want them to corrode. I am not a concourse guy. The front of the housing must be a zinc or ? casting because the corrosion was light and white so I wasn’t worried about shining it up. I also had to sacrifice the direction label. Since the leads are different for positive and negative, I am not worried. Besides, the label is covered with the rubber band anyway.

The bearings had almost imperceptible play yet these fans both made a lot of squeaky noise. I am hoping that, with the new grease and moisture seal (I very lightly siliconed the seams and screws on the housing), that these fans last a while. We’ll see.

As an alternate approach to removing the fans, I was wondering if you might do a quick lube on these fans without removing them. I didn’t actually do this but it seems like it would work. If you feel play in the bushings, after the lock nut on the rear is set, you probably will have to replace the bushing or motor. First, remove the locknut and cup screw on the rear of the motor and squirt grease in there. Put it back with the cup just lightly snug and then lock the nut (make sure the screw doesn’t get any tighter when you lock the nut, by holding it with a screwdriver while tightening). On the front, slide a screwdriver between the blade and the motor housing and gently pry the rubber cap up on the shaft. I know this part works. Then squirt light machine oil on the shaft while rotating the fan. It should wick into the bearing. Then, use the screwdriver again to reseat the rubber cap. It just slides up and down on that shaft.

Rjay
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