Electric Fan

Lots of people have, it's pretty straightfoward, just find a decent quality fan that will fit and install it with a temperature sensor. If you wanna get really fancy, find an OEM electric fan from a 940 but even the aftermarket stuff looks pretty clean.

I have the fluid clutch fan on my 240 but by the look of it it's seized. The coiled spring on the front of the fan hub (I presume it to be a bi-metal temperature sensitive device) is rusted and doesn't move. Is this common? What would the benefits be of replacing it?

Pharm..

----- Original Message ----- From: "Pharmanaut" Newsgroups: alt.autos.volvo Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2005 6:09 AM Subject: Re: Electric Fan

The bimetal coil on the front normally doesn't move at all when you try to twist it. It controls a viscous clutch inside the housing - the closer the clutch plates get to each other in the goo, the more coupling to the fan.

When you try to turn the fan with your fingers - with the engine off! - it should turn smoothly with some slight resistance. It will fail eventually in one of two ways - the silicone goo will leak out, causing it to become useless; or the bearings will seize (often not quite straight) and the fan will vibrate. In the first case the engine tends to overheat when idling in hot weather; in the second case it is bad for the water pump. If your engine is overheating in hot idling, and you test the fan and find it is still turning freely when the engine is hot, you've found the culprit.

I've replaced the coupling on our '85 765T twice, both times with aftermarket couplings from NAPA that cost almost $100 US. The first one lasted barely a year before it seized and the second has been good for the last 4 years. IIRC a genuine Volvo part was about $150 US, and I might have been better off doing that to start with.

Mike

Bit of a moot point now... just been out to test the fan and the bonnet latch is either jammed or the cable has parted somewhere. The bonnet pull moves in and out a few inches but nothing happens to the latch. How do you get round this? Any ideas?

Pharm...