Removing the cooling fan blades
 

Hi again,

So my cooling fan blade has become detached from the motor... again. This is the second time it's happened but I can't bring myself to take it back to the same local garage to get all the same rubbish from them.

Looking up the mechanism, I reckon if I take the front bumper off I'll be able to reattach it easily. Looks like it just twists onto some lugs.

Has anyone else had this problem repeatedly? Also, is it possible to remove the blades without taking off that metal bar in front of the fan? If possible, I'd take the current one off and replace it with one from the local scrapyard.

Cheers, Jake

bumper off. slam panel off.fan housing off.sounds daunting but there is a how to on here.i did it .maybe just the center nut is not tight you need a slim socket to do it. my mates actually fell off:mad:

The metal bar in front is the crash bar, and only held on by 4 or 6 bolts.:)

It might be worth sourcing a replacement set of blades, when the motor spins it should only make the blades tighter as the motor turns the way needed to lock the blades into place.

To secure the three clips on the fan blade centre, you have to stop the motor drive flange from turning. To do that, the centre of the flange has a hexagon 'nut'. To hold the 'nut' you require a thin walled socket that will pass through the hole in the centre of the fan boss.
Used fans suffer heat embrittlement over time and it's quite common for one or more of the clips/lugs to snap off or become sloppy. If that happens the blade unit won't be held properly. One fix is to drill a couple of holes through the boss and motor flange and insert self tapping screws. New blade units are available separately.

TC

Hi Jake.
I had a member at our place 10 days or so ago, same problem his fan blade had detached it's self from the fan motor so he/we thought until we took the bumper off, once off we found some one had also botched his fan to make it run buy removing the control box and wiring it up to the battery neg and a positive somewhere with in the car? anyway thats another story.

Yes bumper off followed by crash bar off then use a socket slim enough to fit onto the fan nut and also so you can guide the fan blade over the socket to twist it back on, you may decide to source another blade or if you use the one you already have drill and grub screw it in place.

by the way the fan blade is released by turning clockwise the same way the fan runs, and to re-attach anti-cloclwise as below.
http://youtu.be/v422cKkvFAk

photo's below only as a guide line for you but you will need to hold the still while you turn the blade anti-clockwise to to attach it back onto the lugs cheers Arctic ;)

Thanks guys. As always, this forum is really helpful.

So there are four bolts in total on the crash bar? I've just bought replacement fan blades from rimmerbros and I'll fit it this weekend.

Cheers

Apply some silicone sealent or similar product to the lugs, this will prevent the blade from falling of again or at least it worked for me 1 year and counting

To remove the crash bar alone as a unit 8 x 13mm bolts and 2 x 13mm nuts you will then need i thin k it is 16mm socket but i can check this out later today if you so wish, also when you have the fan blade back in postion do the demist test to see if fan is working as it should, if a silver resistor is present you may want to think of changing now save taking the bumper off again in the near future should this fail cheers Arctic.;)

I think you are right to have new blades :} Once the blades have been removed from the motor the lugs are sheared and damaged and will never be as secure again :(
I used an old -fashioned box spanner to hold the centre nut whist turning the blades to fit on the hub .