Removing the viscous fan

[BrokenP38]

Hi,

Fan belt has snapped on our P38 diesel. It didn't just snap - it separated along the ridges so there were effectively several individual belts. These then exploded into a million pieces and wrapped themselves around all the other pulleys, destroying the idler next to the alternator in the process.

In order to get the rest of the debris out I need to remove the fan to gain access to the rest of the pulleys.

I have the correct size spanner (32mm) but as there is no belt there the pulley just spins so I am unable to undo the coupling.

I've tried removing the radiator to try and go round the fan but there is a bracket on the bottom of the radiator (where the fan cowling locates into) that hits the fan, stopping me getting the radiator out.

Has anyone come up with a way to hold the fan pulley still, without paying a fortune for the special LRT-12-093 tool?

Also, am I right in thinking that as the coupling is a left hand thread I need to put the spanner on and, from the alternator side, lift upwards and towards the drivers side of the car?

 

[wammers]

Hi,

Fan belt has snapped on our P38 diesel. It didn't just snap - it separated along the ridges so there were effectively several individual belts. These then exploded into a million pieces and wrapped themselves around all the other pulleys, destroying the idler next to the alternator in the process.

In order to get the rest of the debris out I need to remove the fan to gain access to the rest of the pulleys.

I have the correct size spanner (32mm) but as there is no belt there the pulley just spins so I am unable to undo the coupling.

I've tried removing the radiator to try and go round the fan but there is a bracket on the bottom of the radiator (where the fan cowling locates into) that hits the fan, stopping me getting the radiator out.

Has anyone come up with a way to hold the fan pulley still, without paying a fortune for the special LRT-12-093 tool?

Also, am I right in thinking that as the coupling is a left hand thread I need to put the spanner on and, from the alternator side, lift upwards and towards the drivers side of the car?

You should be able to get rad out by unclipping cowl and moving it rearwards to allow rad to be lifted. You have to unclip cowl anyway to get fan out they come out and go back together. All viscous coupling undo in the direction the fan rotates. Try using a loop of rope around pulley, use a large screwdriver or bar to make a tourniquet to grip pulley. Spanner on sharp tap with hammer in direction of fan rotation should do it.

 

[BrokenP38]

Hi wammers,

The cowl has been unclipped and I have the rad clear of that but it's the fan itself that is in the way now:

The bracket on the bottom of the rad is hitting the centre of the fan.

Currently waiting for a new belt to be delivered to Halfords - their computer system listed the wrong one so the wrong one was ordered. I should have known better - I used to work there myself and know how rubbish the computer system is lol.

I'm hoping that I can get the belt on and that will give enough resistance to try the "belt the spanner with something heavy" method lol.

 

[dogsbody]

Where are you?
There are some helpful folk on here who might be tempted to lend a hand.
temptation = cuppas, biccies & good chat.

 

[BrokenP38]

I live in Coventry and if I can't get it done tomorrow I may have to beg someone for some help lol.

Halfords have called and have the belt in now (it's only taken them a week!) so hopefully I can get it all sorted tomorrow.

The computer error has actually worked in my favour! I got the hopefully correct belt for the price of the very wrong one, £31 vs £8 :clap2:

 

[wammers]

I live in Coventry and if I can't get it done tomorrow I may have to beg someone for some help lol.

Halfords have called and have the belt in now (it's only taken them a week!) so hopefully I can get it all sorted tomorrow.

The computer error has actually worked in my favour! I got the hopefully correct belt for the price of the very wrong one, £31 vs £8 :clap2:

Go to a factors next time £31.00 for a P38 fan belt is taking the ****.

 

[paddocks1967]

If you put large spanner between waterpump bolts you should be able to hold it,and go clockwise with your spanner,also europarts do cheap belts,continental i think

 

[BrokenP38]

I did try a factor first but the Halfords computer gave a cheaper price although it was the price of a wrong belt. Luckily they reduced the price of the correct belt to the price of the wrong one so it didn't work out too badly.

Also, having a Halfords Trade Card usually gives more favourable prices - benefit of being an ex-employee lol.

Just to confirm I have the right belt now, the one I have is a 5PK1815 - 5 grooves/ribs with a length of 1815mm. Sound right? I don't have anything to compare it to as the old one is spread all over road outside the house.

 

[BrokenP38]

paddocks1967, I've tried wedging a long screwdriver between those bolt heads but there is very little access and holding it in place is very difficult.

I did get a price from Euro - as a member of the Ford Focus Owners Club I get a discount with them. The price with the discount came to £15.xx but they had to order it in.

 

[Davie F]

Remove the panel in front of the rad, (the panel where the bonnet latch is) undo the rad top bolts and the top hose, this allows the rad to be tilted forward and give more room. Grip the back end of the fan shaft with mole grips and rotate until it stops, put the socket on the nut a give a sharp tap with a hammer, hopefully like mine that will be it. If I remember its a left hand thread. Good luck.
Davie

 

[paddocks1967]

I meant to say screwdriver,if you jam it between the bolts on your left side as you look at and use the metal pipe as a lever to hold back as you push the spanner forward from the drivers side,also a wee drop wd40 .

 

[wammers]

No disrespect, but for christ sake will people stop coming on here and saying use WD40 as a release agent. IT IS NOT. It is a water dispersant. If you want a release agent use Plus Gas or Eezit. Rant over. Sorry Pat.

 

[paddocks1967]

No problem,wammers rant away,i dont mind you giving me into trouble haha

 

[BrokenP38]

Tried Davie F's mole grips method but once it got wedged against something and I put a lot of force into it, the grips slipped on the shaft

Managed to get it done though. Managed to get the belt around the fan and on to the correct pulleys then used the fan spanner to rotate all the pulleys so I could get to all the bits of old belt that were stuck. A combination of poking with a long screwdriver and pulling hard with needle nosed pliers get it all out. Took ages though.

Took the opportunity to renew the A/C belt too - I don't want to be back under there any time soon!

It rained all day too, right up until I was just about finished lol.

 

[BrokenP38]

Just went outside and filled it up with coolant again but now it won't start

The battery appears to be fine as the engine turns over a decent speed and there are no error messages on the computer - aside from the normal ones saying that the windows need to be reset after disconnecting the battery.

When trying to get one of the lower intercooler bolts back in (the intercooler was removed to see if it would let me get the rad out) I had to remove the battery tray which involved unplugging the ECU.

I figured that as the battery was removed the ECU would not know it was unplugged.

Does something happen to the ECU when it is unplugged? I'm hoping not as I have no way to get this thing started if the ECU is fubar'd

 

[BrokenP38]

Never mind, all sorted now! Called out the AA and asked for a man with some diagnostics - they said that's fine, he'll be there within the hour.

They actually sent a bloke on a motorbike who had no diagnostic equipment but he had a go anyway. Turned out to be fuel starvation - squirt of Easy Start and it fired right up

Went for a short test run and the bottom radiator hose blew off and it dumped all of its water on the Coventry ring road

New hoseclip and some water later and all is well again :bounce:

 

[dogsbody]

on the Coventry ring road

Now there's a 'nice' place to have a problem. I've never been there on a weekend but anytime that I've had to use it through the week it's always reminded me of a cross between the whacky races and death race 2000.

Plenty of nice safe places to pull over into.