I successfully removed and replaced the left square cooling fan in my 1969 E-Type FHC after the fan died on me a few weeks ago. The right side cooling fan failed about 10 years ago, so I was familiar with the removal and replacement task. I sourced the new unit from SNG Barratt in New Hampshire for $231.30 with no core exchange required like Moss and Welsh required. The replacement unit looked identical to the original fan motor from the exterior and works properly so far.
I am looking for the black plastic shields that cover the terminals at the rear of the radiator cooling fan motors and couldn’t find a part number in my parts catalogue. The shield should be located in the area circled in red in the first picture. I was wondering if someone on this list knew where I can find these shields.
Both of my fans had the remnants of the plastic shields on the rear bolts, but nothing more. When I replaced the right fan years ago I couldn’t find the black plastic shield so I made a temporary substitute out of a milk carton and it is still there, although it looks out of place as shown in this picture circled in green.
In the meantime I will sacrifice another empty plastic milk jug until I can find a source. It appears to me that the shields protect the terminals from moisture and that is helpful to have here in South Carolina as I drive my E-Type almost daily including in the occasional afternoon rain showers.
Please let me know where to source these shields if you know someone selling them.
They are C.28144 (LH) and C.28193 (RH). They used to be available from the usuals. There used to be a template somewhere on this site. Here is a pic. The texture is on top.
Appears from picture ….that thes are just flat plastic…… make them up with some 20g aluminium and then bend if you think necessary …they don’t look too hard to make….unless your car is concours
Wow! Ed Baumann, Richard Liggitt, Danny Lee, Denis Donohue and Doug H., thank you for the great replies. My 1969 E-Type is best described as a scruffy driver, so concours is not a concern. Although I do prefer to keep the car tidy, complete, and correct if possible. I will try to make these up from the images provided, but if that doesn’t work out I have the part numbers and SNG Barratt as a source. It appears that they are in stock and at $27.77 for both of them it won’t break the bank.
I have enjoyed being a member of this list for the past 20 years and this is an example of why.
I purchased a piece of black ABS plastic that was textured on one side on eBay for about $6 US, cut out the shields with my jigsaw, heated them up with my heat gun and bent them to an acceptable shape, and installed them. Attached are some pictures of the process and how these shields now look as installed on the cooling fans of my 1969 E-Type FHC.
Some projects, like this one, take a lot of time. So is it better to purchase them, or make them? For some the $30 price from the usuals might be worth it. Especially if you are doing it for the first time like I was. So although it cost me only about $6 out of pocket, it also cost me the time to do the research, order the material, cut the shields, file the edges, drill the mount holes, and heat them up and bend them. Luckily I have a jigsaw, Dremel, files, and heat gun. Certainly more than a few hours went into making these shields. But now I have the bragging rights, and that makes it worth it to me.
The original shields were 1/16" thick and I believe that they broke because they were too flimsy. So I decided to get 1/8" ABS which was a bit sturdier. When I do this again in about 30 years, I may try the 1/16" ABS instead to see if it is easier to work with.
I also replaced the electrical tape that I had put on the wiring connectors with some more modern clear plastic connector covers that I harvested from a Series III XJ6 parts car (see picture #4). The original rubber connector covers fell apart years ago and the electrical tape that I put on to protect the connectors looked shoddy. Although the clear plastic connector covers are not appropriate for this vintage car, they look much cleaner and help protect the connectors. So I am happy with the look.
BTW, I went to a British Car Show last weekend in Mills River, North Carolina where there were several E-Types and all of them were missing these plastic shields. Some of them had the remnants of the original ones in place like my car did. I had a feeling that some members on this list might be missing them as well, and that is one reason that I posted with these pictures.
John,
I recommend that you do exactly what I did. Scroll up in this string until you get to Richard Liggitt’s post of 3 September 2022 and print out a copy of the image he posted of C28144 and C28193 showing both of these shields. This gives you the shape of the shields and then cut them out in paper as templates to see if they fit. It turned out that they were a little big, so I copied that image at a reduced scale (I think it was 86%) and that gave me the proper spacing between the two mount holes and a size that appeared appropriate. My template working papers are all based on Richard’s image and may only make matters confusing.
Big2Bird,
This project is clearly a “make or buy” toss up. There are thousands of parts on the E-Type that DIY guys like me can’t possibly fabricate and so we buy those parts out of necessity. But occassionally bits like these shields need to be replaced that are possible to fabricate at home with a bit of reverse engineering and common tools. It would no doubt have been easier for me to buy the shields, but I got a great deal of satisfaction making the shields myself.
Anybody can purchase the shields, but I made them myself and they look pretty good to me.
Although I do prefer to keep the car tidy, complete, and correct if possible. I will try to make these up from the images provided, but if that doesn’t work out I have the part numbers and SNG Barratt as a source. It appears that they are in stock and at $27.77 for both of them it won’t break the bank.
