I suspected it was bad, because the fan always roared - all the time. But after replacing it - holy crap did I need it.

It is so quiet now, and more responsive to boot.

Sooo glad I finally did it, and the part only cost like $55. Woo hoo!

If you can hear your fan much above idle, replace it.
It took less than half an hour. Best part replacement ever.

 

might add that to the 200k list of stuff to replace

 

once my fan clutch went bad on my 94 i just opted for an electric fan that was controlled by a temperature probe

 

I gotta either replace mine or go electric...

 

best answer to a mechanical fan and u get a few more ponies and better throttle response. just periodically check that it is working.

 

Been contemplating the E-fan for a while. My stocky works fine, but with 263K on the girl..... it might just give up the ghost one day, eh? lol. I'd hate to be in the Sierras on the Mt. Whitney Rd, heading up to 15K Ft. and, .....KAPUT! lol.

Nice save, Dave.

PS> Where did you get the fan?

 

Um....you do know that you can rebuild clutch fans....cheap.

 

Autopartswarehouse.com

Just looked and its showing $68, but I think I had a coupon code or something that made it quite a bit cheaper.

 

Um.... no I didnt.

 

Indeed. 4crawler has a write up on his site....

 

Isn't the fan clutch a fail-safe design? To where if it fails it's just always blowing? So worst case scenario is you're losing some power to the rotational mass / resistance of having that big honkin fan engaged.

 

If that is the design, it doesn't work. Lots of us, including myself, experienced over-heating issues at low speeds this past summer on 9-12 year old 3rd gens that were only resolved by a fan clutch change. I could stop the fan with a magazine while the needle was way up there. There were several threads last July/August here and on T4R.org.

 

55 Bux?? I paid like 130 for mine!

 

Was it Aisin (OES) or aftermarket? (Question addressed to DrummerDaveB). I paid like $90 at partsgeek.com for an AISIN, identical to the factory one it replaced. There were cheaper aftermarket pieces out there, but I wanted OES.

 

That is how mine failed.

 

Cheap aftermarket.
Looked identical to the factory one though.

 

hey i found it 4 66.08@ autohausAZ , it's aisin, thats the 1 im gona order.oops wrong forum .my bad

 

Hey, Mr. Sassy, .......... Yes, I know, but of course I have not the clutch repair kit for said on the road job! lol. I will probably do that, as I don't want to dish out big cabbage for electric(quality) before doing several other thingymadoers! lol. Doing an alarm first of Feb.... Doing most of my IFS new ASAP, ....many other things, and so, yeah, that couple hundy has to wait, ya know?

While we're on e-fans, etc., .....any opinions on which is the best for the buck?

 

I got mine for 20$ from a 99 at a junk yard. =]

 

Hmmmmmmmmm, me thinks, it's time to start 'searching' on what will work with what and "HOW TO" on the rest! lol...

Thanks for the input, Pro!