Is there an easy way to fix this. It looks hard to get at. I'm pretty sure anyways that my rad fan is loose as it's been making a lot of noise, wobbling, and continuing to spin after the truck is stopped.
-Dru
If it's wobbling as it turns the fan blades themselves are probably fine, unless the bolts are loose. The bearings in the thermostatic fan clutch assembly may be toast. They do wear out over time.
The fan clutch is the big round aluminum casting between the fan blades and the engine pulleys, and when it is not engaged by the little bimetal thermostat at the end of the stub shaft making the fan turn full speed, the fan blade shaft spins freely on a bearing inside the clutch.
The fan spinning for a few seconds after engine shutoff is normal, because if the engine was not hot the clutch was not engaged. If the stub shaft is wobbly going into the clutch body, or it makes noise, that's where the real problem is.
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Thanks Bruce, I think it's the bearings like you say because it's definately wobbly and very noisy. Is this a fairly straight forward repair? If it's fairly involoved I might see if I can do the timing belt at the same time because I don't have any records of when it was last done and the odo's reading 210K
-Andrew
If it's a normal fan clutch, there are 4 small bolts holding the fan blade on the output shaft and flange, and 4 or 6 larger bolts holding the base of the fan clutch against the drive pulley and water pump shaft flange.
Then again, it can also be the bearings in the water pump that have worn out, which is another set of bearings at the very bottom of the stack on most cars, and will let the fan clutch body and the drive pulley wiggle around.
Get the belts out of the way and get your hands in there. A bit of wiggling and tugging will quickly show which bearings are sloppy.
If you need to replace the fan clutch, there are a few different models, so compare numbers. And the thermostat coils at the tip are different for the severe service/trailer towing package so the clutch cuts in sooner - IIRC the towing one has a big green or orange band painted on it, but the Dealer parts counter man will know.
(Oh, and don't beat on that thermostat coil, or bad things happen. Things like the clutch stops working, or stays locked all the time.)
Same thing with water pumps - on some cars there can be subtle differences between impellers or pulley mounting ends on pumps using the same body casting, you have to put the two together side by side on the counter and check. Chevy was famous for this trick, so I take the old one in and check them side by side, just in case.
I hate doing the same repair over, or getting stuck halfway with the wrong pieces on hand and making multiple runs to the parts house.
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Sounds to me like you should prepare yourself for the purchase of a new fan clutch.
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