Electric fan warning light

[andyf]

During my lay up, I had to fix the PCB on the back of my dashboard. John kindly sent me a spare complete instrument cluster which I cannibalised for the bits I needed. Whilst doing it, it struck me that over on this side of the pond we have a spare warning light available - the oxygen sensor one. I had always intended to fit a tell tale light for the Kenlowe fan and thought that it would be ideal to use this light.

All I did was remove the warning light lens and using very fine wet & dry, lightly sanded the surface of it, so removing the oxygen label. You could even get some sort of generic fan symbol and stick on it but I was not bothered.

The wiring for the oxygen sensor is in the harness from the instrument cluster (from memory it is dual coloured light green/pink - pls check my memory`s rubbish)to the multi pin plug found under the centre grille on top of the dash where it goes no further- so very easy access to it if you dont want to remove the cluster at the moment. You will see the empty fitting in the multi block.

Just take a wire from the multi block connector to the live wire between relay and electric fan and voila, you have a warning light built in to your dashboard - looks very oem and is extremely simple to do.


1980 Persian Aqua DHC

[vitessesteve]

excellent and simple idea[:)]

Steve Weblin - AKA vitessesteve
1982 TR7 Sprint DHC

[TR Tony]

Great idea Andy, thanks for describing how to do it.

A little known fact but BL tried this on one of the development TR8 cars - an A/C car with twin electric fans (no, not my car). The car still exists & has two of the dash warning lights labelled to indicate the low speed fan & high speed fan operation.

So your idea is indeed very OEM, Andy[:)]

Tony

<font size="1">1981 TR7 FHC Cavalry Blue
1980 TR7V8 DHC Jaguar Regency Red - sadly sold!
1977 TR8 FHC EFI Factory development car Inca Yellow</font id="size1">

[Odd]

Having dealt with this idea in dads TR7V8 I'm a bit puzzled:
All the solutions (mine included) I've seen/thought of indicate not actual <u>fan</u> operation, but 'electric power to fan enabled'.
Not 100+ % safe in my (nuclear power plant operations infested, remember) mind. What I'd want is a warning light indicating actual
active movement of the fan (or; the lack thereof when movement is wanted) not just that the fan relay have closed its contacts
- since the fan itself can still refuse to work despite being fed power through the wiring...
Any one have any ideas?

Because this would be a true improvement, giving the operator a possibility to monitor things far better...
/Odd

[FI Spyder]

In some CMOS on computer boards, they not only tell you if the fan(s) is working but real time rpm of it (them). Never got into how they do that but it's there.

And you could always have a light to make sure the light is working. That would assuage your nuclear plant redundancy sensibilities. [:p][:D]



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Odd]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> And you could always have a light to make sure the light is working. That would assuage your nuclear plant redundancy sensibilities. [:p][:D] <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Already have that problem solved (in circuitry theory at least) - a nice'n automatic flicker function.
If light is in 'fan inoperative mode' = dark you get a VERY brief blip of active light, say 15 to 30 milliseconds long, every
55 seconds. If light is in 'fan in operation' = lit mode you get the inverse. Never any real doubt if LED is dead then... [8D]

And the low speed/high speed question is also addressed: green LED light = low speed opertion, red LED light = high speed
operation. To be noted here is the fact I have NEVER seen my fans jumping into high speed mode due to radiator temperature
even in 30+ summer temps stop'n go traffic. Low speed always seems enough - with a thick'n dense modern technology
radiator design. (Sure, I <u>know</u> it works. I can trigger my manual '180 second high speed operation' if I want to, but that's
become more of a pre-flight-check-list thing nowadays...) [:I]

[DutchTriumph]

Not available on my car. I' ve used it for a warning light for The front fog lights.

Cheers,
Peter

1977 TR7 FHC, 1976 Spitfire 1500

[andyf]

Odd, you do make a good point and one that had crossed my mind. If anyone can think of a better solution that would solve this then that would be great.

Don`t make it too complicated though. [:)]


1980 Persian Aqua DHC