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Re: [T3] broken fan?


On 8 Aug 98, at 8:25, Greg Merritt wrote:

> 	I think that my fan may be broken, may have a loose blade, or may
> have gotten crap pulled into it.  A noise (which, to the best of my
> ability, I've located in the fan housing) coming from the engine sounds an
> awful lot like loose change in an empty clothes dryer.  The engine runs
> find, the noise is nearly continuous and pretty much random -- it's *not* a
> click or knock that changes frequency regularly with changes in engine
> speed.

As you might imagine, there are a number of possibilities here.

You may have drawn in a foreign object, most common is a piece of a 
broken fan belt.  This will usually get expelled rather quickly 
without harm.

There are two 6mm bolts that attach the front half of the fan housing 
to the case.  If one of these works loose it will rub against the 
face of the fan and will never go away until it destroys something.  
You MAY be able to determine that your fan housing is somewhat loose 
WRT the case by grabbing it strongly and seeing if you can move it, 
but first you would have to remove the bolt that passes thru the 
"lift handle," fan housing, and into the breather in order to notice 
any looseness.  I always install these 2 bolts very carefully because 
they are so obviously in a problem area.  I drill and tap their holes 
in the case a bit deeper, use the longest bolts possible, and install 
with locktite.

The fan can come loose in its hub, especially, I assume, on engines 
that have been over revved and have not been balanced.  A loose fan 
does not make any noise.  I have seen one of these that broke 
completely free from the hub.  This makes a tremendous clatter and of 
course you lose virtually all of your engine cooling.  You can verify 
this by removing the generator and then looking down the hole under 
the generator at the fan itself.

Any of these problems can be fixed with the engine still in the car, 
and that is what I would recommend, but none of them are any fun.  If 
you end up doing this, remember not to pry on the fan to get it off.

Jim
-
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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