Project Update - Deja Vu Edition .02: Today’s installment we’ll be an exciting one – I’ll extend the rad fan wires, sleeve them and then attach the fans to the rad! I know what you’re thinking; pretty wild stuff…

Ok, if you make it through, I promise a bit of a treat at the end.


To extend an existing fan wires, you can go two ways – either add wire and crimp new connector pins or recycle a connector you’ve already got. Luckily, I’ve got a barrel of 92mm fans on hand with 3pin connectors. For this task, I’ll lop off the ends of the 92mm fans since I can’t think of anything else to do with them. 92mm fans anyone?





When splicing wires like this, I find it helps to stagger the joins so that you don’t get a big lump in the sleeving (known as snake/prairie dog syndrome). You just have to take care that the wires all end up the same length so the pins line up and go into the connector.


The next step is to position the three wires so they don’t tangle when sleeved. If they overlap, you’ll get a sleeved mass of lumpy bumps and not a smooth, sexy result – if such a thing is possible. This is also a good time to orientate the pins so they go into the connector the right way. Once the sleeve is on, it’s very hard to twist the wires.





Next, I’ll carefully feed the sleeve over the wire while maintaining tension. This will help keep the individual wires lined up and prevent tangling.





Next, I’ll use a box cutter to oversize the narrow groove that the wires slot into. After that, I’ll install the connector – be sure to put the heatshrink on first!





I hold the connector angled down before heating the shrink so that it stays as close the connector as possible after shrunk. After heating, rather than wait till the shrink cools, I use small clamps to hold the sleeve in place while I pull it tight in preparation for heating the other end.





For the end closest to the fan, I’ll use enough shrink to cover the portion of wires that run up to the fan motor area. Nils hates when I leave these exposed so I’ll be a good boy and do it up proper. The trick is to shape the shrink before it cools – this is especially relevant when needing a right angle like here.





What’s that sticker say?





I think it means “don’t attach this fan to anything with wheels”. Honestly, I don’t know…


In any event, we’ve now got a lovely extended fan wire; all sleeved with no lumpy bumps.





Time to install the fan onto the rad…





Very nice…


To protect fingers and nipples, a fan grill will be used.





Now that I think about it, Daniel’s got small children so I better add a few more to be safe…





That should do it.


Attaching the whole thing to the rad becomes a bit of a challenge since bolts long enough don’t exist. This is nothing an eager creative mind can’t resolve.





Bright red tape will not only secure everything in place, it will also add a nice splash of color.









Oh yeah; that’s the stuff…


To be sure, I’ll take a depth reading.





Hmm… That’s troubling…


I think it’s best to err on the side of caution and rather than take any chances, make sure nothing can get to that fan…





Oh yes, that’s much better. I’ll give it the “poke test” just for peace of mind.





Excellent – the tool jams up after 5 grills… perfect. Now I feel secure knowing nobody will be injured by these fan – now to do the others…







































Hehe just being a bit silly there. I gave myself a good laugh while taking those pics. In all seriousness, here’s how they really turned out.









I would like to say that no fan grills were hurt while performing this update…

But I’m afraid I can’t.



Ok, if you made it this far, here are a few pics I took of the frosted res holder w/ final mounting hardware. Still waiting on the color versions but will post pics as soon as I’ve got them in hand.














Thanks for looking in.