Triumph Repair: Kenlowe Thermostat, triumph spitfire, pearls of wisdom

Question
Hi Jim, I wonder if you can help:

I've a '79 1500 Triumph Spitfire and for quite a while now have been stuggling with the thermostat either not kicking in and overheating the car, or not switching itself off and draining the battery.  Its been a complete pain.  I've bought a new kenlowe thermostat fitting.  

I'll fit it as before, basically inserting the copper thermostat into the radiator via the connecting tubing.

Before I try again and fumble around, I wondered if you had any pearls of wisdom and advice?

My thanks and regards

Jon (UK)

Answer
Jon,

Other than finding a thermostat that works correctly the only thing I can really think of is that you wire the radiator fan to a separate switch (either on the dash or on a small bracket just under) with an indicator light to show when the fan is on.  

A further improvement would be to power the fan from a relay that is turned "on" by the ignition circuit (maybe from the radio power feed) so that you KNOW it's off when the key is turned off.

Just don't try to run the fan itself from the ignition circuit or you'll wind up melting the harness.

Cheers,

Jim