1987 W124 300TD, disintegrating fan / won't shift into reverse

[Corvo Gold]

Had a bit of an adventure today ...

I was traveling at 75 MPH in my '87 300TD. After hearing a noise under from under the hood, the temperature gauge began to ascend. I pulled over and shut it down. Coolant was leaking out.

Turns out, four of the blades on the [plastic] engine fan broke off. Some of the shrapnel tore a hole in the radiator.

1) Any ideas why the fan disintegrated? Two of the four broken blades were consecutive, the other two were not. None of them were cleanly broken (i.e., they were all jagged), so no common crack so far as I can tell. The fan doesn't appear to be hitting anything either.

2) After the tow truck brought the wagon home, the car would not shift into reverse. I can't imagine this is a coincidence -- what should I be looking for? What else could the shrapnel have taken out?

This is a good time to upgrade the fan clutch, replace the crank seal, replace the timing chain, replace the oil pump chain ... it never ends!

Many thanks,
daniel