LC8 Adventure Second Fan Install

Why? I overheated my '07 KTM 990S Adventure last year when I was doing some very slow riding in the Nevada desert, at 100+F temps. The bike got so hot that even with the single OEM fan running full-time, the EFI sensors shut the bike down. Had to sit for 30min to cool down enough to start again.



When I spotted this ADVmachines Rally Fan Kit in Orange Crush a few months ago, I had to have it! This is my install of the second fan. Note that your exact wiring and plug arrangement may slightly differ from my 990, depending on your model of 990 or 950 Adventure.


This is what you get in the kit:

A nicely made fan mount bracket, fan attached to it, a small washer, a wiring harness, and well written instruction sheet.








Make sure not to lose the small washer, you will need it later.






First you have to remove the right side lower tank fairing. This involves 5 screws, and disconnecting a few wires and vent hoses.
One of my screws looks unusual because it's a TouraTech tank bag attach point.





This exposes the radiator overflow tank and right side of the radiator.






First take the two screws off that attach the overflow tank and rotate the tank 90 degrees and tie it in place if needed. No need to disconnect it.






Next disconnect the water temperature sensor wire to give more room to work in the area.








Rotate the oil tank vent line clamp tabs to face rearward so they will not interfere with the new fan, or dig into your hands when you are working in this area.






In this next picture, the red arrow points to the OEM left fan connection that you must get at and disconnect. The green arrow points to the EFI connector (on a 990) that I decided to disconnect to give more working room.






I disconnected the big connector and slid it off the frame tab mount and tied them out of the way.






Here's a better view of the OEM left fan connector that must be disconnected to install the new fan wiring harness in. The instruction sheet suggests holding the connector with a coat-hanger-wire hook and a long screwdriver to unhook, but I found I was able to reach all the way in with just my hand and disconnect it. Like all the bike connectors, it has a latch so it's a little tricky back in there.







This is the wire that was connected to the left-side OEM fan and is the fan power connector (i.e. bike to fan power) Just let it hang there for now.






You can see the fan plug way back there that you will need to plug the new fan wiring harness into. The connectors are arranged such that you can't plug them in the wrong way, and yes they are wired in parallel as they should be.






First I made a coat-hanger-wire tool to hold/PULL the left-hand side fan connector. That connector is loose and though I was able to unlatch and pull it off by hand, there was no way to hold it and install/push-on the new wiring harness by hand. Not enough room.





Then grabbed the rear of the connector with it.






Then I made another coat-hanger-wire tool to hold the new wiring harness to PUSH it into the left side fan connector.








Then a bit of fiddling and I was able to push the new wiring harness on way back there.









Whew, clipped in!







Plug the existing fan power connector into the new harness






and plug in the new second fan power lead into the the new wiring harness.






At this point I re-mounted and re-connected the big EFI plug.








Now it's time to mount the second right-side fan itself.


Remove the upper right radiator mount bolt.






The bolt that is removed looks like this. The little washer shown is the one that comes on the second fan kit.







Install the new fan bracket, note the upper mount hole.

Two views:









Place the little washer on the end of the upper radiator bolt. I put a little silicone rubber glue on the washer to hold in place while I installed it.













Then rotate the coolant overflow tank back into place and install the remaining two mount screws to hold the tank and the bottom two second fan bracket mount points. I also re-connected the water temperature sensor plug at this time.







Tuck all the wires in nice and tidy so they won't move up into the fan blades. That's it!







Re-install the right side tank fairing






and all done!



Go ride!

Nice job! Such great detail pics that I think maybe even I could install one now. But I'll probably wait until it's 100 degrees out.

Cyborg,

Excellent Post with Excellent pictures. Thanks for sharing.

That's some great detailed installation instructions!!

Cool !



I realy should install that second fan soon.

Thanks Cyborg for taking the time to create the content and write in a way that we can understand! Awesome job! Now if only it would get warmer around here...

Thanks. I have one or two trips down to the hot Nevada desert again this year, so I'll get to try it out!

I wish I could get my overflow bottle that clean. Mine had gotten quite a bit of crud in it and when I disassembled the rads, etc to flush it last fall I tried all kinds of different things to get the slime off the inside of the bottle to no avail

~$23 for a new over flow bottle.... or ~$250 for a heated ultra sonic cleaner will net a clean interior

Geek, you've probably already tried it but some stuff called Simple Green seems to take dirt and stains off bike plastics amazingly well if you let it soak for awhile. Has worked well for me in the past getting ground-in dirt out of white sidepanels.

It came to me the other day that its possible to get to the OEM fan plug another way. It does require a bit more disassembling of the bike, but it does allow a person to get to the plug 100% rather than with the ad hoc wire hanger tools.

1. remove left in addition to the right upper fairing
2. remove all four radiator mounting bolts
3. move radiator assembly forward to limit allowed by attached hoses
4. remove the 3 bolts that hold the OEM fan in place
5. slide the OEM fan out and access the plug to disconnect the harness and insert the splitter harness.

My overflow res. was all funky after my waterpump seal went bad. Someone here recommended rice. That's right, uncooked rice. Put a quarter cup in with your favorite cleaning solution and shake the hell out of it. Mine cleaned right up! The grains are like a low intensity bead-blaster or sand blaster, pretty cool.

yeah I tried simple green with no luck.
I tried high pressure water with no luck.
I tried putting various "abrasives" inside (shaved ice, sand, even a bunch of nuts & bolts ) and shaking the crap out of it... no luck.
I tried pipe cleaners with no luck.

It is almost like the plastic is stained (although I don't think that is the case).

I didn't try rice but perhaps I should

Perhaps I'll just spring for the $24.
Heaven knows the amount of time I screwed with it cost me more than that

Great post Cyborg, better illustrating the install. Especially helpful shots of the coat hanger ends, which are vital to unmating and mating the fan plugs together.

The fan bracket itself tends to have one perfect way to slide it into place, which is gliding it in from the side, not pushing it over the radiator from the back forward ( like my first attempt). I somehow got it inadvertently caught on the oil tank vent line hose clip (that you illustrate rotating 90 degrees CCW away from the fan). The clip was pulled back toward the fan without me noticing. Then the clip ended up catching on the fan blades after the install creating a high pitched noise (luckily just lightly surface scratching occurred from my bad). Once I slid the clip away, the fan was perfectly quiet. Just an FYI to others. Otherwise, this fan is an awesome add on.

Cyborg, Great writeup. I have the bracket and harness. Waiting on the fan. The pics will help once the fan arrives.

Fans are available for about $35 on eBay right now. Same fan: 12v SPAL 4" push.

Curious if there's any issues reported adding a second fan to the factory wires and plug? anyone know the amp draw of one of these little dudes?

The OEM fuse for the fan circuit is 10A, the OEM 5.2" fan is rated for ~4A max current for max load. The second 4" fan is rated for just under 2A max load.

Based upon this information I originally determined that the addition of the second fan would be well within the safe limits of the harness and protection fuse.

The fan that I have spec'd is the PULL fan, not the PUSH. If fit with the harness that I have been making the PUSH fan will blow through the radiator back to front. It may be possible to change the direction of rotation of this fan to make it a PULL type, however I do not know if this will work well or for very long.

WARNING,....

Heat from the new fan will most likely cause the paint and stickers on your right gas tank to bubble up.

This is what happens to older 950 bikes that didnt have a fan cap (60035044050). I had to order one from higher models OEM parts.