Room for crow's foot & breaker bar for fan clutch?

[Cubey]

Has anyone used a 1-7/8 crows foot for their fan clutch? I already have a 1/2" breaker bar, if the crow's foot is tall enough to clear the pulley for it to attach.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunex-97750-2-Inch-8-Inch-Crowfoot/dp/B006L23738/

Otherwise, I'm guessing I will need a jumbo wrench, $25 online. Like this: https://www.oilburners.net/posts/766524/

Another option is this, for $32, which would give LOTS of leverage with a breaker bar attached, but being a van, I probably couldn't do that, not enough open hood space:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Diese...AOSwcwhVJx3t:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!71854!US!-1

I have a couple of very old (1950s or older) pipe wrenches I got for 50 cents each but I'm not sure they are long enough to give me the leverage. Just testing one out on the new fan clutch, it already dug into the metal leaving teeth marks, so the nut must be some soft metal other than aluminum. (magnets stick) I'm not sure the pipe wrenches are the best choice, and they might be too thick to fit between the fan and pulley. I haven't checked yet on the installed clutch.

Being where I am in this RV park where I can do repairs, I think I want to do as much as I can in the next month or two before I hit the road again, rather than trying to do everything in a parking lot someplace, even if I have to buy a $25 wrench to do it now, instead of trying to use a free rental holder in a parking lot someplace.

Since I will have to drain some coolant to get the upper hose off for removing the fan+clutch, I may as well drain a bit more and do the thermostat at the same time, as an extra preventative measure.

It may not need either one (might have just been the factory gauge going wacko) but I'd rather do it now than having to in a more emergency situation, or even having to potentially having to pay a shop. Or worse, having an overheating situation and have to be towed.

 

[DaveBen]

Don't use pipe wrenches on hex bolts. It buggers them up. I used a big pair of channel locking pliers to get it off.

 

[IDIoit]

pneumatic fan clutch tool. ebay it!

 

[Cubey]

pneumatic fan clutch tool. ebay it!

Ouch, over $100. Sadly, my small compressor is in storage across the country, so I would have to buy another. Too expensive for me, especially right now. I'd just wait to do the fan clutch if I couldn't get it off right now.

And in fact I might wait to try to change it in a parking lot with free rental tools after all. It doesnt require draining much coolant just to disconnect the upper hose from the radiator to get the fan. I already have the clutch, I just need to free-rent or buy the tools for removing and installing it.

Re: the thermostat, I might wait on that too. I have a new equus temperature gauge I will be installing soon. Its going to be another 3 weeks, if not 7 weeks, before I even get this thing to full operating temperature again. I drive it less than a mile once a week just to the dump station and right back.

Once I see real temperature readings at highway speeds, I will know if the thermostat and fan clutch need to be done immediately or not. It could be a false alarm, but the fan clutch does seem weak vs the new one when cold. It still turns the fan however, so at least it's doing something still.

 

[Oledirtypearl86]

Last fan clutch I did was on a 08 Dodge Cummins and it was a huge pain in the back side that night I ordered a pnumatic have not used it yet but gotta say I can't water also the napa iv had for years has worked great for many applications not just fans but even tensioners and also a 2 pound brass hammer is very helpful

 

[Cubey]

Last fan clutch I did was on a 08 Dodge Cummins and it was a huge pain in the back side that night I ordered a pnumatic have not used it yet but gotta say I can't water also the napa iv had for years has worked great for many applications not just fans but even tensioners and also a 2 pound brass hammer is very helpful

It's a crapshoot if it's going to be easy or hard. Stuff isn't rusted on here, so that helps. It's probably the original, so it shouldn't have been slathered in red locktite or something crazy like that.

I will rent the free tools and try with that somewhere like a truck stop, where they probably won't care if I do minor repair work.

Failing that, I will potentially wait until next spring to tackle it.

I'm not planning on crossing any mountains before it gets replaced, so it should do okay as long as the fan is still turning. I keep my foot out of it too, trying to get every fraction of an mpg I can, so that helps too.

 

[IDIoit]

with that tool, it comes off in literally seconds...

if you have a shop close to you, spot them a 20 to do it for you, then drive home.

MANchero still does not have any fans, and its great unless you let it idle for an extended period of time

 

[ttman4]

Last time I pulled one of my fan clutches I managed to get my 16" Cresent wrench on the nut.
& remember they're left hand threads IIRC.
Several years ago I took a 2 1/2"x 1/4" piece of flatbar, cut an "openend wrench" notch in one end & made my own wrench.

 

[Cubey]

Last time I pulled one of my fan clutches I managed to get my 16" Cresent wrench on the nut.
& remember they're left hand threads IIRC.
Several years ago I took a 2 1/2"x 1/4" piece of flatbar, cut an "openend wrench" notch in one end & made my own wrench.

The biggest crescent wrench I have is JUST too small unfortunately. The longer a wrench is too, the better leverage for not only loosening, but tightening.

I've seen how some people make pulley holders out of flat bar.

So yes those are options, if the free rental tools don't work. Autozone sells the 1-7/8 jumbo wrench ("order in store") for about the same price as Amazon, so I can get one that way in store, should I want to once back on the road.

 

[79jasper]

Have a drill? Lol lock'er up until you get home to your other tools.....

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[laserjock]

pneumatic fan clutch tool. ebay it!

It's one of those tools that you think... gee... I hate to spend the money on something I'm only going to use once... but then... you end up using it twice then three times and its totally paid for itself.

You can always smack it with a hammer if you don't have air handy. I carry mine on long trips like to the rally just because it makes it so easy. I also carry my air hammer and little compressor but wouldn't have to for this.

 

[Randy Bush]

Why don't you just buy a clutch fan tool from Amazon, see they have one for about $30 . Would be well worth it.

 

[Cubey]

OMG Amazon is so effing annoying. They won't ship the weirdest crap to a PO Box, like the the Gearwrench 3473 fan clutch wrench, or the thermostat for an IDI. WHY? Rockauto will ship the thermostat to a PO Box.

I can kind of see why with the wrench, being big, USPS kind of gouges on big boxes, but a thermostat?!

The cheaper (under $30) ebay sellers of the wrench don't ship to PO Box either. I did find one ebay seller shipping priority, $32 with shipping, so that still saves $8 vs $40 at OReilly. But it still stinks that I can't get a $25 one shipped to a PO Box.

 

[Cubey]

Have a drill? Lol lock'er up until you get home to your other tools.....

I would have to pull it off to do that. I already have a new Motorcraft fan clutch on hand, so that doesn't make a great deal of sense.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

If you go back the same way you did last fall (down highway 283 through Kansas) I'd change it for you.