Wednesday, April 7, 2021

AAARGHH!

 Well, so far I have mangled just about everything. Went to replace the thermal fan clutch on my wifes 99 explorer yesterday.

After about 20 minutes of fruitless searching for my quite large metric open end wrench i use to loosen the nut, i said screw this and came inside to sit down and surf the net for the rest of the day. Texted my grandson to see if he had it, to no avail.

Today, went with my wife to her dr. appointment, mainly because the car has a few quirks with the oil gauge and tendency to overheat because of the fan clutch, so i drove her. Don't feel comfortable letting her loose by herself in that car until i fix a few things.

So, after i asked if she minded going by harbor freight with me so i could get an open end wrench to beat her car to death with. Got there, went to the wrench section, they do not have  individual large metric wrenches. Nor did they have the size i wanted in a set. And apparently only 1 person on duty in the whole dam store.

But i bought a few things, one of which is a chrome deep socket set. The lady asked if i was a club member(apparently you get some sort of discounted price if you are a member), i told her i didn't do that. Then she told me that there was no warranty on the sockets if i wasn't a member. What??  No member, no warranty?? What??

Took them anyway, but i gotta check that out. I don't believe she knew what she was talking about, or she was trying to get me to buy a membership.

On the way home, i stop at the local napa parts house. A 36mm wrench is $30. Ho Lee Fuk.

Get home, let the car cool off. Go out, start to loosen the nut, but the water pump pulley wants to turn. Tried to simply tighten the belt tensioner to stop slipping, that didn't work. Wanted to try a spanner wrench to hold, but this one doesn't have any holes for that. Wound up hitting the wrench with a hammer and broke it free that way.  After it is loose, then have to remove the shroud and take the fan and shroud out at the same time. Well guess what i did. I was stupid and left the ratchet in the tensioner pulley and the shroud locked against that. Got that out of the way and then the right hand tab for bolting down the shroud got caught on a line, and because it is brittle it broke right the eff off. AAARGHH!

Got the whole shitaree out finally, and some sort of dust is falling out of the old fan clutch, must be why it isn't working properly. 

Got the fan clutch and shroud put back in record time for me, fired it up, went on a test drive, and preliminary results are good. But only time will tell.

















2 comments:

  1. If you are talking about a threaded on fan clutch let me give you a tip for next time.
    Air Chisel.
    Put the edge of one on the corner of the nut pointing in the direction you want it to turn and give it a quick BRAAAP.
    Knocks them right loose and you can spin them off by hand. It helps to get a really long chisel bit so you can get down in there.
    Works like a charm .

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    1. With any luck i won't need to do that for a few years. That does sound like it would work. If i have to do it again I will have to either invest in one or rent one.

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