DCS

My cooling fan is about to explode. Nasty wobble at 2500 to 4500 rpms. Originally I thought it was a cracked metal bracket on the fan, but now it looks like it's a bad bearing on the fan spacer bracket. I found replacement brackets priced $90 to $133.

I also found Hayden E-fans priced $53 to $73 bucks from Checker. A thermal fan control kit is $24 additional; it turns the fan on at 185 and off at 170. My thermostat (new OEM) is a 180. It looks like they also offer an adjustable fan controller for $40 (temperature range is 90 to 230).

Anyone have experience with these Hayden kits?
What size didja get?
How are they to wire-up?
What did you hit for 25A fused service?
What controller did you use?
How does the fan fit on install?
Didja keep the stock shroud, or ditch it?
Did you need a bigger alternator?
Does the fan do it's job?
Do you live in a hot climate, or cool climate?

Thx!

HaveBlue

I had one on my 3.4L. It was crap. I overheated twice. It didn't pull enough air. So I went to a Flex-A-Lite. Here's my experience:
http://www.haveblueonline.com/engine/cooling.htm

ChickenLover

My flexalite has a hard enough time cooling my 3.0. There is no way a Hayden fan is gonna work for you.

leebee

have you given any thought to pulling the bracket, pressing out the bad bearing and replacing it? what about hitting the local auto recycler for a replacement ass'y?

do a search on the taurus fan install, that might be another option.

lee

crackerjack

Man I had an E-Fan first I hit a mudhole on the trail and snapped 3 blades.
After I ordered and replaced fan blade assy 55$, next weekend I crossed a small creek and water splashed up onto the motor and it shorted out.

So I took the whole crappin thing out and went back to mech fam Flex has one that is solid and cool lookin

DCS

Not until i read your post! Thanks!

I read about the Taurus option, and am gaining perspective on the efan option.

It seems that the stock config may be best for my purposes. I'll pull that bearing and see what's stamped on it.

leebee

mine is in my garage as we speak, doing some much needed maintenance for the upcoming wheeling season. i have a few brgs that need to be pressed out (fan & a/c), post up the replacement brgs #'s if you get it done before me, ill do the same.

lee

leiniesred

I run the Ford fan (Mine is from a Lincoln VIII) works for me.

DCS

I searched fan bearing, and read for an hour.

It appears that no one has ever accomplished replacement of the two bearings on the fan bracket.

This post gives the best description of why not: link

The critical failure appears to be the bracket itself, after being weakened by wobbly off-balance fan, wobbly fan caused by loose fan nuts, or slowly failing bearing. The bracket cracks and fails, and then major damage occurs.

A good fix would be to buy a new bracket. Chinese-made for $75 from ebay or $89 from rockauto.com, or several hundred dollars for OEM.

New bearings in an old bracket sounds like a bad idea. Too much stress from years of service plus the effort to remove the old bearings and press in new ones.

I have now switched back to the efan camp. It eliminates the hazard associated with the idiotic fake water-pump bracket design. And it frees up HP and improves fuel economy a tad.

I looked at Ford Taurus and Flexalite and Hayden options. I looked at the Lincoln VIII option described by leiniesred.

I'm taking the Lincoln route. Apparently leinie's been okay for a while running the Lincoln fan on the low setting with a stock alternator, and it fits good.

The following is a cut-n-paste from a conglomeration of leiniesred's posts. I added a few words here and there so that it made sense after being removed from its original context.
*********************
Question: can you replace the bearings in the fan bracket?

Leinie: I've recently seen that bearing. Mine was dead at 265,000 miles.
You probably are not going to get it out.
I cut my fan bracket all the way around the bearing and even then had trouble pounding it out. There was only about 15 centimeters of bearing left in the bracket and it was still a pain to get out.
Next, I ground down the driver's side lower bolt area so I could put a regular bolt in there. Then, I plugged the remaining hole where the bearing was with a PVC 1/2 cap I had on the workbench.
Then, I ran shorter belts from the crank to the PS and ALT.
17 bucks for a used Ford 3.8l fan (lincoln VIII in my case). bolted up to the radiator pretty darn well.
I'm using the hayden adjustable fan controller #3647 for now. No relay trouble yet with the 40 amp unit. I merged the 2 fan wires coming out of the controller and sent them off to the low speed wire on the Ford fan.
I can get you pictures/part numbers if you want.

Question: how did you fix your failed fan bracket?

Leinie: I didn't replace it. I removed it and went e-fan:
2 shorter belts from NAPA were about $30
Hayden fan controller was $40
Lincoln junkyard fan was $17
cap for the hole left in the fan bracket after removing bearing was 50 cents
RTV, coolant, zip ties, wires, couple nuts and bolts for the shroud, solder, electric tape, split loom, I'm sure I was out for under $100. It was nice and easy.
I capped the hole to keep stuff from getting into the timing cover.

Question: why bother with a cap in the bracket? Why do you need shorter belts?

Leinie: There is a hole in my fan bracket because I chopped off the bearing support tower and pounded out the bearings. I needed shorter belts because there is no more fan pully. Crank to alternator, Crank to Power steering. The Hayden fan controller is from PepBoys in Highland's Ranch, CO. No problems to date with the alternator. The fan draws 8 amps. (about the same as your headlights, although startup current is higher) The fan runs occasionally while sitting in traffic and coming off of the highway. It never runs above 30mph. My alternator plan is to install a larger unit when this one fails. I'm going to try one I got off of a previa It had a 5 ribbed belt, but they say it is only a 70 amp?
************************

Thanks leiniesred!

How bout some part numbers for the Napa belts?

What on and off temperatures did you use on your adjustable Hayden thermal controller?

Got a part number for the Lincoln fan assy? Or what year model to ask about? I'm not a Ford guy.

Got any tips or other suggestions not covered above?

THX!

mt_goat

Good research done there. I agree about not trying to replace the bearings, looks hard to me. I put in one of the cheap aftermarket brackets and a Taurus fan. Maybe without the mechanical fan the bracket bearings will last??? I'm hoping anyway.

If you can afford it, look into the DCC controller.
It gives soft starts and only runs as fast as needed which means less draw on the alternator. http://www.dccontrol.com/index.htm

tomonthelam

I know this is a little late, but I installed a Hayden Fan about 2 years ago, and it froze up on me about two weeks ago!

When I took the thing out, the mounts had seriously rubbed into the new radiator installed with the fan to the point where I was concerned about leakage failure.

I replaced the radiator and fan using the Tarurus fan. Other than power steering hoses, it was a piece of cake to do and much better looking and performing.

snap-on

so other than me is there anyone that has acutally pressed the bearing out of a new houseing and into an old houseing?

I run a Flex-a-lite in my 4runner... the thermostat control on it doesnt seem to work, so its been temporally wired to always run when the key is on. (been that way for a year now) Even this past winter i had no probs makeing heat.... (i suppose that means my thermostat is working right)

casster

I've now installed two, in as many weeks. The first one's bearings seized they gave me another and it just quit today. Fan can't seem to keep the 3.0 cool in traffic with the air on. I don't reccomend them at all, I don't know which way I'll go from here but it won't be hayden.

willyt4r

I also installed Hayden fan. I pulled a vw Jetta on a dolly 80 miles in la traffic with the AC on- no problem . the gauge stayed in the middle.
I have a new radiator and only 4000 miles on a fresh engine.

casster

I went with the Taurus / Lincoln two speed. I set it up manual and it does great. I can cool it down in slow traffic, I'll see how it does in the hunting woods soon.