Tore aux fan apart; brushes look fried...

[The Warden]

Well, while doing other things on my car (ripping out old car phone, digging for coax cable, re-wiring the fogs), I decided to remove and disassemble the auxiliary electric radiator fan. First, it's amazing to see all the stuff that can hide behind that fan; I don't think I was getting any flow whatsoever. Maybe the car'll cool a bit better now.

Second, the front bearing was fried...metal particles all over the place. Not really surprised.

Third, it looks like the housing around the contact brushes on the fan motor melted. I'm guessing they overheated as a result of the bearing dying and no one disconnecting power before I pulled the fuse. The brushes don't spring in and out like they did on the voltage regulator, but I don't know if they're not supposed to or if they're bonded enough to the plastic housing that it's beyond repair.

Is there a way to replace the brushes? Or is it too far gone? Maybe it's scour-the-junkyards time...

Thanks in advance!

[Fisherman]

I just rebuilt one of the brush holders on my fan with JB Weld. If you find a car with a damaged front end they should sell you a "broken" fan for really cheap. My guess is tha the backend of the fan should be in goood shape even if the car was smacked pretty hard in the front...

The brushes should smoothly push in and spring back on the springs. They seem to be adjusted nominally level to the top of the brush holders when new and fully compressed. A little solder and you can replace them with no problems.

[rickg]

Sorry you guys are finding so much other stuff bad with your fans. I must have got at mine soon enough. Guess now we need to find a source for brush holders.

[73MB280SEL]

Hmmmm,

This may be something I will want to do this weekend. I wonder what dead creatures lurk between the condenser and aux fan.

p.s. If you've ever refered to "JB Weld" as a part of explaining how to fix your car.......



.....You might be a redneck

(j/k Fisherman)

Sholin in (yeeeehaawwww) Mustang, OK.

[The Warden]

Originally posted by 73MB280SEL
This may be something I will want to do this weekend. I wonder what dead creatures lurk between the condenser and aux fan.

DEFINITELY!!!

I think that my coolant temp's actually gone down a few degrees since I cleaned that out...it was at about 90°C before the cleanign, and sits at around 85°C now.

I'm wondering if removing the fan to clean this part of the fins out should be part of the regular maintenance...or at least part of every coolant flush...

[Fisherman]

Are you kidding about JB Weld?
I once was following an older buick that threw a hub cap at about 40 miles an hour in town here. The hub cap rolled across the street, hit the curb and became airborn just in time to partially sever the head of a 12 year old boy walking down the street.

The paramedics said that if it wasn't for the quick thinking of that old Buick driver and the application of the quickset JB Weld to that kids neck he never would have made it...

When in doubt use just a little more....

[73MB280SEL]

Warden,

Yup, you bet. Although I've still got a few cooling system issues (different thread: I didn't get the system fully deoiled and the fan clutch isn't engaging), I'm very happy with the clean/flush/new thermostat/Zerex coolant service I did a couple of weeks ago. Still, I'm sure it could use a cleaning--it's probably never been done.

Fisherman, Yup, I'm joking. I have a pretty good JB Weld story too. One of my friends from college had a really old RWD toyota corolla during/after college. He cracked the head, so we took it off IN THE APARTMENT COMPLEX PARKING LOT piece by piece and JB Welded the crack. We stored parts in the trunk all the while.

I kid you not. JB Weld does indeed fix cyl head cracks. I don't know what's more redneck: clandestinely working on your car in the apartment complex's parking lot or using JB Weld to fix a head crack. His Father in Law owns the car now. I doubt it still runs, but it just might, hmmmm.....



Sholin