was driving along this morning....slowed down to turn right....stop...let traffic go...turn right ...and when reving my oval up to take off...a loud scratching noise could be heard....
mmmm.....arriving at work...in neutral ....rev her up a bit and scratch again...mmmm....i looked under the hood.....and spent an hour working on it and found out that the fan in the housing in kind of spinning free when i hold the pulley from the generator where the belt is and put my hand behind the house i can turn the fan by hand while holding the pulley in it's place.....my conclusion is .....they should be both spinning at the same time...correct?....correct... but now the problem is i can hardly acces the back of the fan to tight it up due to small space beetween the housing and firewall... so i thought... i take the generator out but now the problem is that the 4 bolts holding the generator holding it to the fan plateare very tight and won't undo.....any suggestion?
hope that makes sense.....
cheers...

[Edited on 1-4-2004 by sleeper]

The generator shaft turns the fan and the fan is attatched to it by a 36mm nut with spacers underneath so you can adjust the clearance between the shroud and the fan. you might be able to just get a 36mm around the back and tighten it. The screws holding the genrator onto the shroud shouldnt be tight, make sure you are using the correct size screwdriver. It is also attatched to the generator stand by a strap. Get the fan belt off before you try to remove the generator

hi che castro....
did remove the strap....and everything id free....the only thing stopping me to unbolt the generator from the housing is the 4 bolts from the plate to the housing....very tight....
was wondering if i can tight that nut from behind beetween the fan and firewall.....
am i also correct that the fan shouldn't turn if the generator isn't? i've done that by hand and it seems that to me.....
cheers

If the fan is running free and not being turned by the alternator, I would be very carefu; driving it, as you may not be getting proper cooling.

The fan should only move with the generator shaft, not independently. If it isnt then the fan is loose or the cutout is rounded out. The shaft is cylindrical, where the fan sits over it, it is a cylinder with 2 flat bits - u can figure it out from the cutout in the middle of the fan as u can see in the photo



The fan is held on by a 36mm nut (bottom left) and spacers underneath then the thick spacer (bottom left - it has the cutout to match the generator shaft) then the hub bit underneath.



The only reason that the fan wouldn't turn with the generator shaft is that if opening in the fan where the shaft fits in is rounded out - or that it is loose. however if it is loose the fan would be really loose - almost off the shaft completely. I'm guessing its rounded out. To get it off you have to remove the generator - the bolts holding it on are only screwed into a small amount of thread into the fan shroud, so they are difficult to make tight really. They are more just difficult to access. Its easier if you drop the engine and remove the manifold.

It'd be difficult to tighten the nut from behind the shroud with engine in car - do u have the correct socket? its a big 36mm - same size as the nuts that hold down the drums..

[Edited on 31-3-2004 by Che Castro]

hi che castro....
thanks for the infos....i will put my head into it tonight again...
the fan actually turns but sometimes it doesn't....from what i've seen it looks like that the fan is loose and gets back in place when driving....
will get my hands dirty again then

What size engine do you have in the car? If you cant undo the 4 bolts then you can remove the decklid, pull out the tube for the accelerator cable and carefully lift out the whole fan housing.....Its not worth the effort removing the engine to do this job.

Are you sure the front pulley wheel is turning the generator shaft?? Maybe the fan is ok but the fan belt pulley is cactus?


I had that problem with my 36hp, the locating Keyway was stuffed and the pulley would spin on the shaft.

Just a thought.

well....
i didn't end up removing the engine....just the generator...and found out that the fan was worn out and rounded where the shaft goes.....lucky i had a spare fan....
bravo che castro....diagnostic was spot on...well done and thanks for your advise...
cheers:P

Cool......................................no pun intended.

hehe... thanks its kinda weird that the fan bit should be rounded out, there isnt that much load on it, it just has to push air. meh anyway good to hear that its ok now