Flaps & Thermostat

After a recent question on this forum on flaps, I looked at my engine to understand how the they work (my engine is out so it is easy to do). On mine, they open and close pretty easily: When I took the thermostat out, they just flipped open. When I tugged on the rod slightly, they closed again. Remco

Joao

72 Super 1302

Thanks for you reply This a usual problem when we ask a pro to do some work on you car. Time is money, so when they see that it will take a long time to detect a problem they and mess with the things instead of trying to find why they don't work.

Joao

72 Super 1302

You should feel the spring resisting movement when you pull down on the rod from under the cylinders, and when you release the rod, it should snap back up because of teh return spring pulling it constantly

Jan

Mine flipped back when released. My hands were greasy and slippery, so used a needlenose to grab the rod. It had resistance, but could pull it open pretty easily.

Pull closed, I meant.

I should but I can not feel the spring but it is there. It is hard to pull and push the rod. I can ear a noise like metal working on metal without lube. The guy that rebuilt the engine I will pull the engine to check the torque of the heads and I what to be there to check a few things that I suspect that are not correct. Thanks for you reply

Joao

72 Super 1302

When I got home and after repairing my TV (It was black and white) I went to the garage to confirm the flaps/thermostat issue. When I tried to move the flaps from the front of the surround it was hard as I told before, but I didn?t test after removing the thermostat. Without the thermostat it is not hard to move but I only can move the assembly 10mm. I think that it is not enough. Looking under the car I notice that the rod isn?t alight with the thermostat bracket slot.

1- With the thermostat was hard to move assembly in first place, because the rod was pressed against the bracket slot. 2-It didn?t move more that 10mm without it, because the rod hit to top of the bracket instead of passing inside the slot of the bracket.

I found the problem now I have to fix it. May be that?s why, I had a feeling that the engine was a little hot than the normal as I posted here a few weeks

Joao

72 Super 1302

Wow, you are in touch with your bug, Joao, to notice it running hot without any indicator other than your gut feeling! Good you got that fixed quickly.

Remco

I've had a couple of major problems in two seperate vehicles with flaps not open all the way. On one of them the clip came off the rod controlling the left side leaving them stuck about half open. From time to time check the rod and spring. Just reach around the fan shroud and make sure it opens all the way and returns by itself. An engine won't overheat from to much volume of air passing through the cooling fins and oil cooler but it will from to little air volume. I don't take chances anymore. Good luck.

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I only have that feeling when I park it on the garage or when I open the lid. It is not a very accurate method. I think that I will buy a thermostat to measure the oil temperature. Sometimes we have a feeling that we don?t know how to explain and also after a rebuilt we are more watchful.

Joao

72 Super 1302