Damn.... Thought I had everything covered IF I was to break down. Started to rubber burning, so pulled over and immediately realized I had no steering. Got to shoulder, popped the hood and bam, belt spit out. No problem, have spare in door, BUT.... What made the belt break was do to, the damn idler pulley blowing apart....

 

Man... that sucks.... you could never carry EVERYTHING you might need though.... but I do have a spare idler pulley with my spare belt...

 

At least you can find that pulley just about anywhere, I think... Provide an update as soon as you can.

 

Where on I-40? That's a long road...

 

I was 15 miles west of the Colorado river, heading to bullhead. Started smelling rubber/maybe brakes and thought, damn that truck ahead stinks. Well, to my surprise, within 15sec I come up on a dogleg right and she enough, no steering. Quickly, pulled into dirt, popped hood and belt was destroyed, let alone, a crack in one of the fan blades. How critics is that? Can bi make it home or will it come apart?
. AUTOZONE is 3 miles away, so wanting for neighbor to get home. All in all, made it here at 4:30am, left home at 9, which the drive is 4hrs, lol... While docking truck on flatbed, forgot about the scorpions, and here I was worried about snakes..smh. One was in front of tire where I was about 2ft away, haha Look!, no pulley

 

I would show the highest respect for that cracked fan blade. When the fan kicks in it won't be while it's parked in the driveway and the sudden burst from idle to whatever your engine speed is will put stress on it. Before I left it on there cracked I'd yank the fan and keep an eye on water temps but that's just me. Has your fan been coming on? What's your future driving like? Mine has never come on yet but I rarely tow heavy.

 

I have the same thoughts as Mark, replace it or pull it.

My fan does not come on unless I am towing my 5th wheel camper and even then it is only when working hard while the ambient temperatures are up.

 

I hear ya, walleye. It's why I asked. Thinking of leaving REALLY late tmrw or really early Monday, just so I'm in the "cool" zone of climate here. Think, is been a cool burst here and will remain that way at night vs the labor day weekend, when it wad 115* at 9pm...lol.... Don't remember fan kicking on at all last night leaving until I broke...

 

As long as you keep moving, you don't actually need a fan. It may come on at 45+ when towing but that doesn't mean it's needed. You only need it when you're moving slow and there isn't airflow through the radiator.

An unbalanced fan will take out a water pump in short order. If a fan is cracked and a piece of a broken fan blade breaks off, watch out.

 

Neighbor looked out and took me to get the parts. 10min later and all seems good, besides the fan blade. You guys guy me v worries now. I found OEM on rockauto for 70 buks so, pulled the trigger...WHAT I DID FIND, was the 10mm bolt that secures the ac clutch, was loose! Did that jobbyjob a few months back. Guess, locktite is your friend...

 

It looks like your idler pulley breaking the belt may have been a blessing in disguise. Whether or not your fan blade was cracked before hand, not sure. But, I would most certainly bet that the A/C pulley coming off would have resulted in a bad day.

Glad you got it back on the road in a relatively short amount of time and at a small cost.

I always think of threads like this when people compare the 6.7 to the 7.3. Could you even consider running the 6.7 without a fan? No idea, but I wouldn't think you could. What about changing a pulley on the side of the road like that, or sourcing parts for under $100... I love my 7.3 just a little more each day.

 

Glad you got her fixed back up. Yes, definitely get that fan out of the equations and replaced at your next decent opportunity.

Keep an eye on your temp if running without a fan. EOT and Trans temp. Remember, your transmission cooler is up there, too

The guys on this forum are helpful all the time, but man...when you're broken down or have a failure along the road away from home and they jump in with information and advice to get you going again....PURE GOLD!

Let us know how you make out as you travel

 

Bad news is you broke down. Good news is you probably broke down in a good location. Have traveled that I-40 corridor for years there are some pretty remote spots, and that would of been costly.

 

all the way true sarge... I ran my 7.3L with out a fan for over a year. Now this is all east coast running some with 30 ft airstream and some with out.

When i went to pick up the airstream in Sarasota, Florida in March of 2015 that whole trip was with out fan.. Only one time did my temps get up and that was coming back to Orlando. We had to get off I-4 due to a back up and go on I-drive, which has stop lights and such.. after a couple of quick lights the temp started to climb but once I got going for a couple min they reset back to normal
for the most part.

I had gotten a couple of elec fans to replace the mechanical fan or get the turbo fan kit which if a complete replacement but at 600 plus dollars was a bit steep..

around here, east coast might not be a big deal with elec fan replacement but out west might need both..

for the most part I did not see a real increase in MPG maybe something like 2 or so. Hard to tell for sure as i don't drive truck every day and it can be towing and non towing in same tank.

 

Fellas... Just wanted to say that I appreciate all the opinions, ideas, good lucks and so forth. Had back against the wall but with the wisdoms and such, mustard up enough ba$%s to take her home. Made it at a little after 4am, left at 11 when it was nice and cool. Only problem which had me skeptical, was outside Laughlin, there's a 7% grade for 15min not towing. So, once I hit it, I turned the heater on until I created. Truck never once "kicked in" into JET-MODE sound....prior to leaving, went ahead and drilled holes to stop the "bleeding"...aka, cracks..... Woke up Toda with FEDEX at door with new blade👍Again, thanks and hope that don't happen again. Getn anutha idler tmrw with bolt as well...