Went to the closest junkyard yesterday to pick up various parts and one thing on my list was an ea81 low profile radiator fan to put on my 87 3-door in place of the clutch fan. Found only one in the yard and it looked so-so, car had 175K on odometer. The yard charged $7. Cleaned it up today and took it apart to look at the brushes - looked very good with about 3/5 of each of the 4 brushes remaining. Put the fan back together and repaired and lengthened the wire harness. Tested the amperage draw and it was about 5 amps, is this normal?

Why, does it sound too little or two much? Seems like a good ballpark amount. Does it look like it is reaching speed, pulling enough air and sounding OK? Install it and enjoy.

They draw a good amount. You can watch the guage drop when they come on. Pretty normal for a motor designed to move that large of a fan.

 

GD

Sounds good. I'm just trying to decide what size fuse to put in line with it and also how to switch it on - am thinking that I will use the presently unused thermoswitch with a manual over-ride switch.

 

Why, does it sound too little or two much? Seems like a good ballpark amount. Does it look like it is reaching speed, pulling enough air and sounding OK? Install it and enjoy.

You could trigger it the way it's done on the EA81 - when the AC compressor comes on so does the second fan.

 

That's really all the clutch fan is for anyway. It's there to cool the AC compressor from getting dangerously hot when the car isn't moving. The non-AC models of EA82 didn't have the clutch fan at all. Same with the EA81's - it was just electric. That's why they are so hard to find - not many EA81's had AC.

 

GD

I'll look into triggering it that way, thanks.

 

If the USMB people in the rust belts of the US saw the vehicles in the NW junkyards, they might scream.

 

You could trigger it the way it's done on the EA81 - when the AC compressor comes on so does the second fan.

 

That's really all the clutch fan is for anyway. It's there to cool the AC compressor from getting dangerously hot when the car isn't moving. The non-AC models of EA82 didn't have the clutch fan at all. Same with the EA81's - it was just electric. That's why they are so hard to find - not many EA81's had AC.

 

GD

I'll look into triggering it that way, thanks.

 

If the USMB people in the rust belts of the US saw the vehicles in the NW junkyards, they might scream.

 

 

 

be quiet, before i start screaming obscenities at you

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64285&highlight=relay

 

theres a link i found easy enough (since i used my name as a search string) that has some good info on relays you can use to switch your fan. a higher amperage relay than needed isnt really a problem, as long as you have a properly rated fuse inline with it, too.

If the USMB people in the rust belts of the US saw the vehicles in the NW junkyards, they might scream.

 

Or those of us in the non-rust-but-also-non-snow-and-therefore-non-4wd belt where there are no Subes in the junkyards, because the few that ever lived here are still on the road.