Forgive my ignorance, but I need someone to explain how the fan clutch works. I've been fighting with high running temperatures for a while now, and it's suddenly gotten worse. I've also started hearing a loud clacking from the front of the engine bay, so I believe my fan clutch is bad, but I'm not sure how to confirm before I shell out the cash for a new one. When I got the vehicle, all the fins in the fan clutch were full of crud. Like the PO spilled oil on it and then dropped it in the dirt. I removed a little piece of spring metal from the front, and a small copper pin fell out of it. After I cleaned the clutch as best I could, I tried to put it all back together, but the metal had to bend to go back into the assembly, so it didn't hold the pin in place. I believe the pin to be long gone. Did this doom my fan clutch from the start? Or am I completely off base here?