Fan clutch removal, a new trick!
 

Hey guys,

I had my welder with me today, and I was going to make a gizmo to hold the water pump pulley in order to unscrew the fan clutch. I had the motor out, so it was easy to get a good look at it and realized that this would work great.

Attachment 59068

Just take a large open end wrench, I used a 7/8 but any wrench with a long enough handle to hit the crank pulley will do. Place it on the back side of the water pump pulley, over one of the protruding bolts that mount the pulley, and rotate the pulley until the wrench contacts the crank pulley. It gives you a super solid lock on the water pump pulley and you have both hands free to work with. Mine came off easily with nowhere near enough force applied to do any damage to the threads on the bolt, and it was locktited on.

Remember, reverse thread, or in this case righty loosey leftie tighty!

Good luck,

Mac.

*like*... Thats a better way than most...

Reps sent for taht one, that is genius...however would it still work on the V-Belt system? I saw your motor is serp belt....I prefer the Serp belt myself.

I'm not entirely sure, I have never played with the v-belt system, but one would think so, The pump is the same, so the bolts for the pulley would still be there, and we know the crank pulley will still be there! A different wrench might be in order, but it still should work. If anyone with a v-belt system tries it let us know. I want to add, be aware of how much torque you are putting on your pump if you try this, I know for sure that mine came off with slow even force that was nowhere near what it would take to crack the cast pump housing, but physics dictate that when push comes to shove, something has got to give, and the cast pump is the weakest link in this chain. I guess what I am saying, is that if you need to lay across your motor to get a foot on your wrench to get the fan clutch off, that might be too much on your pump!

so the easiest that mine has ever come off was with everything on still and i made sure that the belts were good and tight as if i was planning on running the motor that moment so that nothing is slipping and i just used a pair of big pliers on mine and it took not much force for it to come off lol idk just a thought to keep in mind and the pump didnt move anywhere it might work on serp also but i havent had a serp in a while

Mikey, that is not really an option on the serp belt, I think because of the opposing directions of the belts and the much larger amount of surface area a v-belt contacts coupled with the fact that you can "over tighten" a v-belt, which is not an option with a serp belt unless you use a clamp or something, which would not be good for the belt. I know that on both my trucks, the pulley starts slipping long before the fan clutch could possibly break loose. Another thing to keep in mind is that you say, " i just used a pair of big pliers on mine and it took not much force for it to come off" It should be tightened pretty snug and have lock tight on it. These motors stop very suddenly when shut off. If that fan clutch is loose, it could wind up in your radiator! :-hair

Thats what mine did. Turned it off and CLUNK SLAM BANG. Bye bye radiator and shroud lol

Removed and reinstalled one today while swapping water pumps using a 1" ratchet strap to hold the pulley in place. Wrapped the pulley completely with the ratchet strap and looped it around the crank pulley. Few good clicks and it didnt budge while i removed the clutch/ reinstalled. The pulley on this truck sweeps too far back to get a wrench in there, the tightness of a brand new belt wasnt enough to hold it.

The old pump was missing the passenger's side far corner mounting bolt. Wasnt leaking too much from there before so i was hoping it would hold again... no such luck. So off to lowes in the morning to get a bolt.

reviving an old thread
 

So i got my AC charged and the mechanic thinks i need a new fan clutch. I'm having trouble reading up on how this fan clutch works and why i need it. My fan spins at the rate of my RPM's, and can anyone explain why a clutch needs to engage? Sorry for the dumb question, and will replacing it help cool my AC condenser like my mechanic claims?

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ml#post7461511 :-X22

Mac, genius on the wrench trick.

F250, thanks for that cool link!

Thanks for the tip... That is ~slick!!! Off-topic but related... What do you all use on that big nut? The tool sells on eBay for like 80$-90$, does everyone here own one of those or is there another tool that works? Anyone know what size that is? The fan clutch tools they sell at the local parts houses all look too small..,:-huh

I use a strap wrench, Its a chain oil filter wrench adjusts to any size and has nice gripper teeth.

Thanks for the link. that helps a lot for testing--i'm pretty sure my fan clutch fails #2, because from memory, i know there is no viscous drag when I was replacing belts on the ol' van. I'm resigned to replacing the clutch regardless. Is there a thread that explains the operation of the fan clutch? It'd be great to see an animation or video of how it works.

It has been a while so I am not sure of the size it is either a 50 or 55 mm open end wrench. I will double check when I get a chance. (I didn't by the wrenches I already had them from another job.) :-X22