[DeTomaso] Questions on the Rick Moseley relay kit

[mikeldrew at aol.com]

Doug wrote:

     There's nothing wrong with the stock radiator fan relay setup, but 
there is
a problem with the power that feeds these relays going through the 
ignition
switch.  You don't necessarily need another bank of relays (ala the 
Moseley
system) to solve this when a couple more fuses will do the trick.

>>>Again there's a misunderstanding of what the relay kit is, and what 
it does.  The bank of relays on the kit is used to control the 
headlights, not the fans.

 >I just
tapped off the alternator (load) side of the ammeter with a 12AWG wire 
over
to a small auxiliary ATC type fuse block screwed to the firewall near 
the
stock main fuse panel.  Then I moved the 2 thick Pink fan relay feed 
wires
 from the main fuse panel's #11 & #12 locations to separate 15A fuses in 
the
new auxiliary block.

     Be sure to put corrugated plastic cable covering over the 12 AWG 
wire
between the ammeter and the auxiliary fuse block.  And be careful 
tightening
the nuts on the ammeter so you don't damage the ammeter's internal
connections.  This mod changes the fans so that they run whenever the
radiator is hot enough even if the ignition isn't on.  Some may not like
this mode of fan operation but many modern cars run their fans this way 
to
cool the radiator down at shutdown.  I like it when I'm racing because 
it
removes heat from the system in preparation for my next run.

>>>My car operates in the same manner and I find it a nuisance.  I have 
a battery disconnect that I always use because there's no good reason 
to drain the battery spinning the fans to cool water in the radiator 
when the engine isn't running.

Apparently Rick's kit actually uses one of the relays to prevent this 
 from happening; power to the fans is interrupted when the key is 
switched off, a great improvement IMHO over the original design that is 
often mistakingly referred to as the Mike Drew fan/headlight relay 
modification.  (So-named because I collected information from several 
different sources and wrote a how-to article--but I can take no credit 
for coming up with the idea).


>    Any 30 amp relay commonly available at auto-parts stores can be 
used in
place of the stock fan relays if yours are no longer working or 
trustworthy.

>>>True--ish.  Most of the relays that you buy at the auto parts store 
are really cheap, and not weatherproof at all.  OEM relays are built to 
a much higher standard.  If it was me, I'd be replacing the worn-out 
stock relays with new, original-style replacements, which are widely 
available and not particularly expensive.  Wilkinson lists them for $25 
on his website, and often the actual price can be less than that.  They 
are extremely common and used on all sorts of other Italian cars as 
well.


Mike