Kensmith

Tom,

I installed your Spal 16" puller last year and wired it per the instructions using the temp sender. I had no problems with the cooling system but my Vintage Air is putting strain on the motor and A/C system when the fan turns off with the a/c still running. I don't recall anything regarding a way to hook the fan up to also come on when the a/c is on. Car is at my mechanics now and he says it has to come on whenever the a/c is on. It needs to cool the condenser. Can you post or let me know the best way to wire it for both a/c and temp? Or did I miss something in the instructions?

Thanks,

Ken

584me

[QUOTE=Kensmith;1574985005]Tom,

I installed your Spal 16" puller last year and wired it per the instructions using the temp sender. I had no problems with the cooling system but my Vintage Air is putting strain on the motor and A/C system when the fan turns off with the a/c still running. I don't recall anything regarding a way to hook the fan up to also come on when the a/c is on. Car is at my mechanics now and he says it has to come on whenever the a/c is on. It needs to cool the condenser. Can you post or let me know the best way to wire it for both a/c and temp? Or did I miss something in the instructions?

Thanks,

Ken[/Q

The directions I got when I installed Vintage Air in my 58 showed that the air conditioner would not operate if the electric fans were not running. There is a HI-Low switch for your refrigerent and there may be a malfunction in that area. I have it wired up so I can put the Spal on at any time, not just when the heat rises above 180 degrees. I had the switch in the auto position and the A/C would not come on because the engine was not hot enough to turn on the switch. The fan for the A/C will run but no cooling, cause the compressor is not engaged. (or should't be) Your mechanic is correct, the fan must be running.

Joe V.

KC66

The Hi-Low switch is used to protect the compressor. If the pressure becomes too high or low it will shut of the compressor so it will not get damaged. You can wire the relay for the fan with the on-off switch for the AC. The fan has nothing to do with your AC running or not. But yes it may be better to have it wired to come on when your AC is turned on. KC

INMYBLOOD

If you have the SPAL controller it has a function to run an axillary fan when the A/C is on. Not sure there is a function to keep the main fan at speed continuously unless you just set the "high" temp low. That is kind of how I have mine set now. I don't have A/C yet but it was a test to see how stable the rad/fan would keep my engine without A/C and it sits on the thermostat temp even on hot days. I think the A/C kit I'm looking at has fans with it, so I'd just hook them to the controller. Don't know if this helped any.

GEM '62

You would normally have a binary switch mounted in the high pressure line between the condenser and evaporator, the switch shuts down the compressor if the pressure in the high side gets too high or too low. If you install a trinary safety switch, when the pressure starts to rise the switch will engage the electric fan to lower the high side pressure. The trinary switch will still shut down the compressor if the pressure rises above a safe level. Any AC shop should be able to provide and install the switch.

Kensmith

That is what I had in my 32 ford (trinary switch) but I had a mechanical fan on my 65 vette when the A/C (Vintage Air) was installed. Not sure if it is a trinary but might be. I had a Spal electric fan on my 32 Ford but I don't remember if the fan came on when a/c was on as I think the trinary switch did the thinking for the fan.

JohnZ

I don't know anything about the Spal controller, but when I built my Grand Sport replica with Vintage Air, I wired the electric fan through a relay that was triggered by the compressor clutch wire; when the compressor energized, the fan came on (also had a bypass/manual switch on it so I could turn the fan on when the A/C wasn't operating).

Kensmith

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am waiting to find out if I do have the trinary switch. If so, then that would be great. I will be able to have the fan come on automatically either when needed by the A/C pressure and/or by the engine temperature.

Kensmith

Problem solved, additional relay and wire per Spal instructions which I failed to read since I looked and went by the diagram only, clearly tells how to wire for A/C. Geeezzzz, when am I going to learn to stay away from electrical and rely on diagrams? Always looking for the easy way which almost always gets ya in trouble! Thank God I have a good mechanic to fix what I screw up.

66jack

glad you fingered it out

jack

Kensmith

Jack,

And it was the cause of the noise I was telling you about at Hot August Nights. Too much pressure in the compressor because the fan was not pulling in air through the condenser when the engine was cold. Once warmed, the fan would kick in and the noise would go away. As long as the fan is on, the noise goes away. We think the noise was the belt and crank pulley due to the extra drag on the motor from the compressor. Guess I should have bought a vert like yours with natural A/C as long as you're moving down the road.

66jack

Yea you should get the natural air
Don't want to hijack this thread but...

I'm having problems with my engine.
Burnt 1 qt of oil from Reno to home.
So now I'm checking things to see where its going. The engine is strong, no smoke coming out of the exhaust, no smoke on start up.
Readjusted the timing, the plugs were to changed to a hotter one.
Compression is all over the place, put in some Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinders and a little in the crank case maybe it will loosen some things up in there
Only 7 thou on the engine.
The oil is going through the combustion chambers and not a leak anywhere.
I'm gonna drive for awhile longer until the fall, unless something happens sooner then i will go through it.

Other than this little dilemma Reno was fun.


jack