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Electric Fan Conversion

B

bzdel2441

NAXJA Forum User
I am getting ready to install an electric fan and I am wondering if anyone besides gojeep has completly removed the pully and rerouted the belt. I am thinking of doing so, so I can put in a larger 14in fan. Either a perma-cool or a zirgo and they have 3.5 inch depths. I only have a 3 inch depth so if I completly remove the pully I will have no problems. Here is very poor pic of how I am thinking of routing it (almost like the 4 cyl belt routing) What do you guys think?

site1045.JPG


I am pretty sure because I change the routing the original belt would fit to. Let me know what you think.

Thanks
Chris
 
Looks good to me.
Still have almost 50% contact surface around the alternator and PS.
 
Go-jeep belt routing seem to be different to the US XJ belt routing. I may be wrong. Anyway, I toyed with the idea of removing the belt that used to run the fan. The question of suficient belt contact with the alternator pully was in my mind questionable so I dropped the idea and kept all the pulleys minus the fan and fan clutch. Only trial would prove right or wrong.
 
I came up with this, but you loose contact with the crank to gain on the alternator, and you will most likely have to change the idler somehow.
site1045.jpg
 
scoobyxj said:
I came up with this, but you loose contact with the crank to gain on the alternator, and you will most likely have to change the idler somehow.
site1045.jpg
Click to expand...

That wouldnt work becuase the idler is there to move the belt under the thermostat housing. Then that amount of contact scares me on the crank. Here is a quote from go-jeep "I looked around at different set ups to determine which components need the most belt wrap to work correctly without slipping. It showed that the air conditioner compressor, crank and water pump pulleys need the most with the alternator the least. " So I am thinking the setup that I drew had about 50% contact area and I think that would do really good. Anyways that is only how much contact there is on the 2.5, all I did was take the 2.5 diagram and add in the idler pully (because the 2.5 doesnt have one)
 
bzdel2441 said:
That wouldnt work becuase the idler is there to move the belt under the thermostat housing. Then that amount of contact scares me on the crank. Here is a quote from go-jeep "I looked around at different set ups to determine which components need the most belt wrap to work correctly without slipping. It showed that the air conditioner compressor, crank and water pump pulleys need the most with the alternator the least. " So I am thinking the setup that I drew had about 50% contact area and I think that would do really good. Anyways that is only how much contact there is on the 2.5, all I did was take the 2.5 diagram and add in the idler pully (because the 2.5 doesnt have one)
Click to expand...

It's hard to change the belt routing around the alternator because of the mounting brackets for the AC pump and the alternator. Maybe a little creative grinding could solve this, but I found it was just easier to just remove the fan and fan clutch.
 
kunaji said:
It's hard to change the belt routing around the alternator because of the mounting brackets for the AC pump and the alternator. Maybe a little creative grinding could solve this, but I found it was just easier to just remove the fan and fan clutch.
Click to expand...

Oh I didnt even notice that. Maybe I could just grind it all down. I dont think I would need to grind alot down the belt doesnt move arround to much does it just like grinding down an 1/2" on either side of the belt coudl do it right? I think I will take it all back apart and take a look.
 
kunaji said:
It's hard to change the belt routing around the alternator because of the mounting brackets for the AC pump and the alternator. Maybe a little creative grinding could solve this.......
Click to expand...

I was looking at the same thing because I have dual electric fans and my clutch fan pulley is effectively just another idler pulley. I'd like to get rid of it and reroute the belt as bzdel2441 suggested here:
site1045.JPG
but the problem is that the belt would catch against the alternator mounting bracket/bolts. The bracket would have to be modified to clear the belt. Notching the bracket would provide the necessary clearance but it'll weaken it, so you'd have to add some reinforcement behind it.
 
BZDEL2441 what year XJ do you have? The '96 do not have the idler between the power steering and AC. Instead it is between the crank and the power steering. My ,96 would have required a different routing including modifing the alternator mounting bracket.
Let us know how it work out for you.
 
Dr. Dyno said:
I was looking at the same thing because I have dual electric fans and my clutch fan pulley is effectively just another idler pulley. I'd like to get rid of it and reroute the belt as bzdel2441 suggested here:
site1045.JPG
but the problem is that the belt would catch against the alternator mounting bracket/bolts. The bracket would have to be modified to clear the belt. Notching the bracket would provide the necessary clearance but it'll weaken it, so you'd have to add some reinforcement behind it.
Click to expand...

I feel honored to have Dino intruigued by my idea!!!
 
He he he. Ideally I'd like to take it one step further and eliminate the idler pulley as well as the fan pulley so that I end up with something similar to the 2.5 I4 set up below:

BELT4.jpg


To get there I'd need to fab a custom mounting bracket for the A/C compressor as well as for the alternator. The challenge will be to move the A/C compressor down a few inches so that the longest free portion of the belt clears the t'stat housing.
 
Last edited:
I had the same probs. and ideas, but ended up junking the serp. belt and used the brackets and accs. from an 82 amc eagle 258. I also got the YORK a/c comp. with it all, and it all still bolted up in my ' 88 limited. The waterpump has to be changed, and a little kiss with the grinder on a couple of spots to clear the 4.0 balancer, but other than that it works great. If you have trouble with the p/s hose not wanting to fit the pump, change the cartridge on the pump(it is the BIG nut that the hose screws into).
 
what are you looking to get from switching to the elec fan? more room?
or power?

I ran one for a while but didn't notice much difference in power.
 
cherokeekid said:
what are you looking to get from switching to the elec fan? more room?
or power?

I ran one for a while but didn't notice much difference in power.
Click to expand...

How about gas mileage and efficiency? Dr. Dyno knows his stuff, I'm going to do this conversion on my 91' & 98' 4.0L 2dr XJs.

Troy
 
Big Red said:
How about gas mileage and efficiency? Dr. Dyno knows his stuff, I'm going to do this conversion on my 91' & 98' 4.0L 2dr XJs.

Troy
Click to expand...
As opposed to the fifty or so people who have tried to switch to electric fans, only to come back to the mechanical.
 
FANtastic idea

kid4lyf said:
As opposed to the fifty or so people who have tried to switch to electric fans, only to come back to the mechanical.
Click to expand...

I've been running dual electric fans for 6 years and I'd never go back to the clutch fan. The key is to make sure that the electric fan that you're going to use as a substitute for the clutch fan flows enough cfm of air to prevent the engine from overheating. The fan that I have is a 14" unit that flows 1800cfm in puller mode. Combined with the flow from the factory auxiliary electric fan (approx. 1200cfm), I have enough to keep my engine cool in slow traffic. The amp draw is fairly low so it doesn't drain my battery either.

http://www.angelfire.com/my/fan/electric.html
 
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