Preparing A Tiger To Live In The Arizona Desert
By Cullen Bennett
B9472658
September 15, 1999
The stabilizer bar also provided a nice place to put a couple of cable ties and little rubber cushion to keep the radiator hose from getting chafed and to insure that it stays out of the fan blades. Next was the job of installing an ammeter in the dash and removing the old generator regulator with a little rewiring to splice the alternator into the wiring harness with minimal damage to originality. That scratched two items off the list for shifting everything around. The remaining item was the air conditioner itself. At that point I stepped back and asked myself, "do you really want to do this?." Well you can guess what the answer was since I am now writing this epistle of my experiences and labors. After lots of procrastination the task was finally started. Naturally the first thing was to pull the new radiator, shroud and fan to slip the condenser coil out in front. Along about this time I was having some second thoughts about whether the radiator would be able to accommodate the additional heat being dumped by the condenser coil. While at a local swap meet I saw a bug 16" electric fan for $25.
We connected it to a battery to validate its condition and I headed back home with a little more confidence in the installation. The first observation was that even though the fan had two wired coming out of it, they could not be reversed to change the direction of rotation to make it a "pusher" instead of a "puller" fan without blowing a fuse (when it was connected to the chassis). Seems as though this manufacturer had installed an internal jumper from the negative side of the motor to the fan chassis. A little clip of the jumper and a re-assembly and we were in business with a real-live "pusher" fan that really moved some air. A few mounting brackets later and the fan along with the condenser coil were mounted to the front side of the chassis. The "pusher" fan was wired to a manually operated toggle switch mounted under the dash through the bracket that holds the Bonnet release. This is what is normally referenced as a "chicken switch" since it will only get used in an emergency. Actually, just prior to this installation all of the "excess" metal was cut away in front of the radiator to give a full unobstructed path for airflow into the radiator. While shopping for the air conditioner components, I had found a few factory crimped hoses that were about the right length with connectors that matched the threads on the other components. These gave the entire installation a nice factory appearance. The dryer was placed just inside the engine compartment behind the horn on the passenger side with the hoses being routed through the existing hole next to the radiator. The other hole on the opposite side had previously been blocked off with a sheet of clear plexiglass to prevent recirculation of air flow back around the radiator. The compressor was now ready to find its resting place, but the original brackets for adjusting the belt tension on the compressor would not match up with anything on the engine. I remembered that there were the tapped holes in the front of the head that were available for use. With a little measuring, some steel cutting and a little welding a transition bracket was fabricated to fit between the front of the head and the compressor bracket that allowed the tensioner to function properly, as well as provide proper belt alignment.
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