Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Please could someone confirm if my fan set up is correct i.e. which way the blade is on and direction of rotation. Its been off the road a long time !
The direction of rotation is anticlockwise when looking at the fan from the front of the car
Many thanks
Chris

Looking at your fan I would say it needs to go clockwise. Bypass the switch to get it rotating then hold your hand on the engine side of the rad. It should be blowing not sucking.

Hi Chris,
Looking at the curvature of the blade I think it is also fitted the wrong way round.
The blade should `scoop` the air and push it towards the radiator.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

Chris, here is mine for reference.

Tim

Out of interest, I had two motors and two fan blades to choose from when I rebuilt my S4. One is the metal one that you guys seem to have, and the other has this plastic blade. When it kicks in the blast though the radiator is considerable, and the temperature drops very quickly. Is one a replacement for the other, and if it is, which way?

Mark

Your motor looks like the later type, you can reverse the direction of rotation by swopping the supply wires over

Thanks for your replies
I can reverse the direction easily by switching the wires as suggested - I tried that at the weekend.
I think my blade is wrong way round if the fan is to blow air at the radiator.
I wasn’t sure if being in front it was sucking hot air out but thinking about it with cold air coming through the grill it should be blowing at radiator otherwise it will be fighting the airflow.
Broke down on my first outing in 12 years - ran out of fuel !!

Mark, the later cars (and Plus 2S 130s) had the metal fan and a slightly more powerful motor. The plastic white fan with less powerful motor seems to have been fitted just to Series 4 and early Sprints.

Tim

Yes - the fan should rotate clockwise when seen from the front of the car.

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago after replacing the radiator & reconnecting the fan. The car would warm up nicely to around 80 degrees & run well, but if I then sat in traffic I could hear the fan come on, but the coolant would rapidly heat to 100 degrees plus. What gave it away was when I put a piece of paper between the engine & the fan it was sucked forward to the radiator. So rather than warm air from the radiator getting hotter when it passed over the exhaust manifolds & then be exhausted through the fender vent, hot air from the manifolds attempted to be pushed through the radiator & was stalled by the air coming through the nose.

trw99 wrote:Mark, the later cars (and Plus 2S 130s) had the metal fan and a slightly more powerful motor. The plastic white fan with less powerful motor seems to have been fitted just to Series 4 and early Sprints.

Tim

One more note, that larger motor & metal fan have a shaft size of 5/16", whilst the smaller motor & plastic fan blade have a shaft diameter of 1/4", so motors/fan blades are not interchangeable.

p.s that metal blade can draw blood... ask me how I know...

Yes - the fan should rotate clockwise when seen from the front of the car.

To be clear that's just the metal bladed fan.
The plastic Kenlowe fan rotates anticlockwise when viewed from the front of the car and the fan hub is marked with direction of rotation and S or B to indicate which side sucks and which blows.

You are missing the rubber boot that seals the top wire on the motor Chris. Without it, water can and will get in. Not many motors still have the original boot as they split, so best to fill the gap with black silicone.

The nuts securing the motor to the bracket should be nylock. Quite a lot of vibration going on there, specially with the metal bladed fan, not so much with the nylon blades.

Leslie

oldelanman wrote:

Yes - the fan should rotate clockwise when seen from the front of the car.

To be clear that's just the metal bladed fan.
The plastic Kenlowe fan rotates anticlockwise when viewed from the front of the car and the fan hub is marked with direction of rotation and S or B to indicate which side sucks and which blows.

Thanks for posting that, I for one was not aware of the difference.

512BB wrote:You are missing the rubber boot that seals the top wire on the motor Chris. Without it, water can and will get in. Not many motors still have the original boot as they split, so best to fill the gap with black silicone.

The nuts securing the motor to the bracket should be nylock. Quite a lot of vibration going on there, specially with the metal bladed fan, not so much with the nylon blades.

Leslie

Thanks for the info on the boot/silicon. I do have spring washers on the bracket but will add nylock as well

pharriso wrote:Yes - the fan should rotate clockwise when seen from the front of the car.

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago after replacing the radiator & reconnecting the fan. The car would warm up nicely to around 80 degrees & run well, but if I then sat in traffic I could hear the fan come on, but the coolant would rapidly heat to 100 degrees plus. What gave it away was when I put a piece of paper between the engine & the fan it was sucked forward to the radiator. So rather than warm air from the radiator getting hotter when it passed over the exhaust manifolds & then be exhausted through the fender vent, hot air from the manifolds attempted to be pushed through the radiator & was stalled by the air coming through the nose.

trw99 wrote:Mark, the later cars (and Plus 2S 130s) had the metal fan and a slightly more powerful motor. The plastic white fan with less powerful motor seems to have been fitted just to Series 4 and early Sprints.

Tim

One more note, that larger motor & metal fan have a shaft size of 5/16", whilst the smaller motor & plastic fan blade have a shaft diameter of 1/4", so motors/fan blades are not interchangeable.

p.s that metal blade can draw blood... ask me how I know...

You were spot on -my fan was blowing a gale towards the front of the car !

During the summer, I wondered why the temperature on this car took so long to come down when the fan was working fine. This is a late car with the large fan motor. Then the penny dropped.

If you are experiencing similar symptoms, you might want to check the orientation of the fan blades on your car. It seems this is a popular mistake to make when refitting the blades after a refurb of the fan motor.

Interestingly, air is still blown towards the radiator with the blades fitted incorrectly, just not in enough quantity. It took about 10 minutes for the fan to bring the temperature down enough for it to cut out, as opposed to about 2 1/2 minutes with the blades fitted the right way around. And thats with the bonnet open!

Slowly putting it back to original.

Leslie