'88 300E fan bolt
 

The bolt holding my cooling fan on the bearing has fallen out and I need to replace it. I have a few questions...

First of all what kind of bolt is it? How can I find it? Is it mercedes specific?

Second, is there a bushing or anything between the bolt and the clutch?

Third, is this replacement going to require me taking off the radiator?

Do you mean the bolt..
 

..that goes in here??

http://pauls-space.zftp.com/fanclutch.jpg

If so, your fan clutch should have fallen off by now. :confused:

hmmm...that does seem a little wierd eh?

Look...it might be a couple of things. I have been told that the bearing mount often breaks and that could be the problem.

I will tell you exactly what I see...the fan is still intact and attatched to the clutch. The fan and clutch/pully as one unit are wobbly on the bearing mount. I took a look inside the hole that you posted, and cant seem to see a bolt, which is why I say it is missing. The tension of the belt is forcing it downward and the fan blades were rubbing against the pully below it, which is what caused me to notice.

Any help?

You have a bad fan bearing bracket (what the fan clutch attaches to). You can't see it from the outside but once you get the bracket off you'll see the ball bearings literally falling out from the inside. The bearing typically collapses around 150k - 170k miles and the symptoms you describe fit it to a tee.

It's not that tough of a job but the part itself is kind've pricey. (~$160) Look up fan clutch bearing bracket.

Good Luck :D

Perfect
 

Thanks a lot, you just saved me a lot of time:)

I'm doing that job right now. You can get remanufactered clutch bearing bracket from Mercedes dealer I do business with for $88.50

Read thread in link. Deals with your issues too.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/tech-help/142802-fan-clutch-failing.html

Is there a date or other information on these parts that would enable me to tell when it was manufactured? I have an old parts car (88 300ce) that has a new radiator and I'm trying to find out if the fan clutch, etc was replaced at the same time. Thanks.

update
 

Well... I bought a new fan bearing bracket and I am in the middle of replacing it. I got the fan out, and attached to it is the pulley and fan clutch, and the bolt(the one I thought was missing) is fused into the shaft so far that 90 lbs on an impact wrench couldnt loose it. Im a little stuck. It looks like I might need to buy a new pulley and clutch just because I can't get a bolt out.

My last choice is to take a drill to it and just blast the thing out... Im going to do this tomorrow, unless somebody here can give me any other ideas. Really, I feel like I have nothing to lose though.

I also need to buy a new idler pulley and bolt and bolt cover. :(

Did you use the tool that hold the fan clutch in place when you try to remove the bolt?