Thanks for the help! Here's where I'm at:

 

Does that catalog have a 79 listed for the 351? Also, what catalog is that?

 

That is Ford's Master Parts Catalog. And the "77/" means from 1977 to the end of the catalog, which was 1979.

 

Here's a better view. The fan blades are hitting at the bottom of the shroud visible in this picture

 

I'm thinking lowering the shroud would be best. Do you have enough room at the top to drop it 1/2"?

 

I think I do up top, but I don't think I do at the bottom (hose).

 

I'm not sure what to suggest. You need about 1/4" of clearance to insure the fan doesn't hit on bumps or when the engine torques, as the mounts will give some and the engine will move.

 

I just had someone suggest the motor mounts could be worn causing the misalignment. I'm going to check that when I get home.

 

That's a possibility. Good idea!

 

Gary, what fan part # do you show for the '79 4x4 351M clutch fan? I'm wondering if I might be able to just get a slightly smaller fan as another option.

 

Here's the info, but I've only included the first usage of C8TZ-8600-B, the 18 1/2" fan, to the bottom so you can see what other applications used that fan. I'm betting you have the 19 1/2" fan.





However, note the center hole differences. Perhaps that's due to the clutch? Here's the info on the clutches.

 

Thanks! I just ordered one of those catalogs by the way

 

You will learn to count on the catalog. Which one did you order?

 

1973-79 Ford 100-500 Series Truck Master Parts Catalog on CD. I'll measure my fan when I get home. If it's the 19", I might just see if I can find an 18". That might be an easier fix.

 

For the 1980 - 89 trucks there are two vendors for the catalog: HIPO Parts, and David Forell. The HIPO version is 5000+ pages of jpg pictures, which cannot be searched. However, with a bit of work and the right software you can run an optical character recognition (OCR) program on it and make it a searchable PDF. That has huge benefits, and is what I've done to my HIPO copy.

David's 1980 - 89 version has already been OCR'd. However, it wasn't done very thoroughly and there are many misses such that when searching for things it may well not find them. I've had many discussions with David and explained the problem and suggested a solution, but he wasn't interested.