Fan won't fit without schiming. Help?
 

Hi all, my problem is somehow after cleaning, light sanding,and light buffing the fan shroud, on my work bench, I reinstall the alt. and the fan (still on the bench)and the fan is not even close to fitting without touching the housing. In my zeal to clean, did I scrape away to much dirt or something? After hours of angry trial and error I finally fit the fan without it hitting anywhere by making a schim to fit between the alt and the housing. Am I missing something here? After all it's the same alt and same housing. Any help would be appreciated .

Pictures please! This is a precision fit and usually when this happens it is an install/missing part issue.

Do you have the washer between the fan and alternator facing the correct way?

Yeah the washer was intack but there's nothing on the housing itself that I removed while cleaning and polishing ? I even cleaned the mounting flange with the six threaded holes. Weird.....

Intact ok but is it facing the correct way? There's a shoulder on the washer.

I'll check later I just got called to go to work thanks

Ps the reason I had the thing apart was to see if the brushes were bad because the last time my tach started bouncing all over the place, the mechanic replaced the alt. now 15 years and 60000 mi later it did it again. But the brushes looked find some wear on the armerture or rotor but not bad.but to test the alt I have to put it back and drive to the shop so I might as well get a new one

Take a good look at the stator winding insulated supports, the insulation on mine were long sense burned away and thus I got intermittent stator phase shorting on bumpy roadbed.

Sometimes if the fan is hitting the side you need to torque down on the alternator bolts holding into the housing. Tighten half of them and find the balance point that the fan isnt hitting.
Sometime you have to remove and spin in the housing but seating is the problem and response.
Bruce

I agree that MOST of the time the problem is with the way the ALT is seated into the housing, not a problem with the fan on the shaft of the ALT.

Make sure the ALT is seated properly in the housing and then the fan should fit much easier.

I'm back and thanks for replying guys. We'll I broke everything down . What I see is the shoulder ( wider flange) was toward the bearing is this correct?

A pic of the schim in placehttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1387661522.jpg

I believe the washer needs to be flipped from how it is in your photo. The raised step needs to mate up with the inner race of the bearing.

Ok thanks , because I've looked in my books and nothing. I'll let you know.

flip the shim but you still need to seat properly in the housing.
Bruce

nothing to do with the washer or the shims. the bottom of the housing looks crusty which will cock the alternator.

All of the above?

Thanks for the tips. I should have left the thing dirty. Though.....lol!

Now that everything is back together, I'm still experiencing the fluctuating tach needle. I tested the voltage and at 2k rpms I got 14.05 volts. I have an optima red that's about 5 years old to which I have not tested yet if it is the voltage reg will I have to get a new alt. or just the regulator