While driving home this evening and getting off the highway my fan clutch came on.  Stayed on the last 30 miles. Got home and opened the hood and it does not free spin at all. Everything looks fine, and the fan has no wobble like the bearings are shot, but it is definitely locked. No free spin what so ever. Just curious if any one has had this happen and did you drive it for a bit before fixing. it? I have two days left this week a have to get one way or another. My thought is it should be fine if all is still tight. At least for a couple days. What ya'll think?

Also, an indicator for left hand thread.  I believe the fan clutch nut is marked in this manner.  I think I learned this from this site some time ago.

 

- John

 

Some photos of the new and old. 

More to follow.

I got the fan clutch replaced today. Went to my shop and 30 seconds later had it in my hand. . Thought it might be a bigger search since I bout it a while back. According to the invoice in the it was 2013.  Had another problem back then that turned out to be something else. So I hope shelf life dont kill it. It is a Hayden and everything in the box says made in the USA thought it is not on the part anywhere.  The fins do appear to be different but the body including the fins appears to be the same size. So I have no idea what the difference is.

 

Install was not to bad. I did rent a clutch removal tool, thanks @IBMobile. It did  not have a 71 mm but 72mm but it worked. Just took a bit to figure how to hold the wrench's , socket wrench. and the cheater bar by myself. Bot once the magic moment happened it just came apart fairly easy. Install was about the same though I dont know how you would torque it.  I just grabbed it all a gave a good tighten.  Took for a half mile drive and It took about a quarter mile to unlock. When I shut it down the fan spun for about 3 seconds. Took the clutch back and got the engine up to temp and at shut down it spun for about 5 seconds. Seems to spin more feely than the 19 year old oe but I have not paid much attention to it in quite awhile.

 

@TractormanIf you look at the side by side you can see the marks you speak of the new one though they are very small.  I dont see them on the oe. But the wrench marks might have obscured if they were that small on the oe. 

 

Bottom line its in.  If it does not hold up then I can do it again. Thanks for all the advice folks.

Look at the old fan clutch and you can see the shaft seal leaked out the oil once the oil was gone the shaft seized up on the fan clutch. I've seen both locked up and free spin for failures. I've done it in the past where free spin ill drill two holes and bolt it solid (locked). This way you could drive it till you could get a new fan clutch. 

14 hours ago, dripley said:

at shut down it spun for about 5 seconds

Hmm... Maybe my truck is in need a fan clutch, too!  I thought maybe for these trucks the fans were supposed to be hard to move by hand.  It sure doesn't free spin, even at shutoff from 800 RPM.

11 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Look at the old fan clutch and you can see the shaft seal leaked out the oil once the oil was gone the shaft seized up on the fan clutch. I've seen both locked up and free spin for failures. I've done it in the past where free spin ill drill two holes and bolt it solid (locked). This way you could drive it till you could get a new fan clutch. 

You see powdered rust where nut meets the housing. It definitely got dry.

9 minutes ago, LorenS said:

Hmm... Maybe my truck is in need a fan clutch, too!  I thought maybe for these trucks the fans were supposed to be hard to move by hand.  It sure doesn't free spin, even at shutoff from 800 RPM.

My oe used free spin a little after shut down. But I had not given it any concern for quite a while since it seemed be working fine. You could still move it with the engine off and would get easier the move the more you rotated, but it did not free spin with your hand much. Even this new one I dont think I could stop it like @Mopar1973Mandid in his video. I was going to try but could not find anything suitable to stick in there. Plus sticking something in a rotating fan goes against my better judgement.

This morning it took about 9 or 10 miles for to unlock. The old one would lock some mornings but would release after the fluid moved around in a minute or so of driving. We will see how it does over the next while.

 

Even after 431k miles I'm still running my OEM fan clutch. Even when mine goes out I will not buy a Cummins fan clutch. I know the fan clutch that was supplied by Dodge/Cummins is no longer available by the same manufacture. 

At $76 from RAuto, I won't be replacing mine until something actually goes wrong.  Or, perhaps when I place an order damn near the entire A/C system.  I've got a leak somewhere, and also the condenser has a large amount of its bottom rows blocked off due to PO's interaction with a deer.  For all I know the oil is all piled up there, upstream of the smashed circuits.  Now that I'll be driving the kids around more (wife starts a new job in July), I want the A/C to work.  Unlike my dad's old vehicles from when I was that age, these new vehicles aren't designed to be cooled with windows open.  And, highway speeds are much faster and thus louder.

Mine lasted 531k. I got my moneys worth.

 

I did my AC about 3 years back. Replaced everting under the hood for about $250. The wife's Saturn had the compress blow not after. The parts for it were almost double that. I cant what either would have cost if I had taken them some where. 

8 hours ago, dripley said:

.

This morning it took about 9 or 10 miles for to unlock. The old one would lock some mornings but would release after the fluid moved around in a minute or so of driving. We will see how it does over the next while.

 

 

I tried two Napa/Haden fan clutches, neither one worked right. Slow to unlock and slow to lock. Wait till you tow something on a hot day, that will tell the tale. Went back to Mopar, all is well. 

3 hours ago, NIsaacs said:

 

I tried two Napa/Haden fan clutches, neither one worked right. Slow to unlock and slow to lock. Wait till you tow something on a hot day, that will tell the tale. Went back to Mopar, all is well. 

When I left this pm it disengaged in about 30seconds. Pretty much like the oe. We shall see how it acts in the am. I bought this thing back 13 so it was paid for. Might as well use it. If it does not work out it is not that hard to change.

I think your fan clutch will work fine.  There were probably a couple of gremlins living in it while it was on the shelf.  They will quickly jump into your wiring harness now that you have installed the fan clutch.  In fact, I think they already have, since you mentioned the fan clutch now seems to be working fine.

 

- John

I think if I sat on shelf for the past 8 years I would have some gremlins that wanted out. I think I am fine too. I not like I said it was not that hard to change and long since paid for.

Basically in a nutshell.

 

 

Now notice the oil/silicone inside does the clutch action. If the fluid is lost the the fan clutch fails. This why after sitting and cooled the silicone/oil will settle to the bottom. So when fired up there will be a locked fan clutch for a short time in the morning then as the silicone/oil moves to the hub again it will unlock. This is totally NORMAL. It when you reach 210*F and the fan is not locking up then there is a issue.