I have these on both my cars. They react to temperature and go from idling round when things are cold to being driven near solid when things get hot. Some descriptions talk about a bi-metallic sensor - but both mine have a spiral spring on the front attached to the coupling body at the outside end and to a valve of some sort in the middle, and as the spring heats and expands turns the valve. But appear to be just a single metal. So are there different types?
Nice to hear that someone's pulled one apart - the ones on Stags were known as Torquatrol (ditto with some Jags, I think) and collective wisdom seemed to be that once they were seized it was game over and time for a new unit; I never found anyone who'd tried stripping one. I suppose the thinking was that even if it could be stripped and rebuilt, it might not necessarily operate with the correct temperature/slippage ratio.
I quick googling to try and find details of the Torquatrol unit's mechanism threw up "Holset viscous coupling", so maybe some more digging can be done there - I saw hints that the same coupling was used in various Rootes Group vehicles. One of your cars is a SD1 isn't it? Maybe they used something different...
Dunno. All of my recent cars have had fans driven by thermostatically controlled electric motors rather than being directly engine driven - probably the only realistic option for cars with transverse engines.
Took them a while to realise that whereas the sideways radiator was good for an engine driven fan, it was shit for airflow. Though these days the space is taken up with gearbox anyway.
I don't think the Clubman had a front mounted radiator, though I could be wrong.
The 1100s, Maxis and 1800s all had nearside radiators from recollection.
The "wedge" Princess had a front mounted rad. as did the Allegro, ( all versions?).
I suspect the change in philosophy must have been in the late 70s.
Whether the Metro, which was launched at roughly the same time had a front rad. or not I don't know - never having the misfortune to have to get oily hands under the bonnet! If not, I wonder if the later (mid 90s revision did)?
No need to pull it apart - the spiral I'm talking about is on the outside at the front in the airflow. Although not all viscous couplings vary with temperature - some just restrict the maximum fan speed.
Both my cars have units made by Sachs. Googling threw up all sorts of information - but none what I actually wanted. There appear to be several patents for this idea using different principles.
Later Metros (and Rover 100's) - with the K-series engine - certainly had front mounted rads (and I've got the Haynes manual to prove it!) Can't remember about early ones with A-series engines.
so did all minis have side ones? I really thought it was only early minis, and that 1100;s maxis allegros and the like all had front ones..mm..now I think about it we did run the family 1100 through a puddle to a halt once.
Not sure where the difference between the A and A+ was. The metro had the same gearbox-in-sump as the Mini.
I had the 1275 in a Metro and a Maestro - in the latter it actually worked quite well, with a 5 speed box helping. Ok, not fast, but pottered along pleasantly enough and not as slow as some would have you believe. And pretty economical too, which was nice. Pity about the need for leaded :-( The Metro was just too noisy and thirsty at motorway speed - needed another gear. And a bigger tank. And a proper radio. (was it really only W -> E reg the difference between high models having a mono radio and low models having a decentish 4 speaker radio cassette?)
That car got retired by my sister. She had my old one, which had
130,000+ miles, a nice mismatched door and some tatty welding, but the engine and important bodywork was sound. She then got given a lower mileage one from her b/f's mum. What they didn't appreciate was that several tens of thousands of miles of not-town driving meant my old one was nicely freed up, whereas the town/old lady combo meant the newer one although shinier was a bit of a slug.
Since then I've had a couple of Citroens - 3 BX, 1 CX. The CX was wonderfully big, and I liked it a lot, apart from the shit carburettor - put me off carbs for life. One of the BXs was a 1.9D estate and struggled to get over 60mph - something unhappy there. Made it to somewhat over 200k miles though. Our first one was a 1.9D hatch, which I liked quite a lot. A great tractor. Rusted through at 220k, less than perfectly patched accident damage taking care of the back. The current one is a TD hatch, which is slightly less of a tractor and rather quicker, though I don't know if it'll make the same distance - only 170k at the moment. Had it 5 years though, which is the longest I've had a car.
Maxis had side-mounts. There were kits available to put a front rad on - my father fitted one. I think we may have been one of the classic overheated-in-M5-queue cars, may have been both before and after the kit.
Ditto. Was the A+ the 1275cc version, with an extra head stud or something?
Only the early ones with A-series engines. The later ones with K-series engines had a horrible Peugeot-sourced in line gearbox with an even more horrible cable-operated clutch.
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