easy fix for rad fan motor.

[bigyagi]

seeing as my engine is in parts, and i'm waiting for my new rad to appear, i decided to take a look at the rad fans. since i got the car, they are LOUD, almost sounding like a hovercraft. at first, i thought that the fans were out of balance, and the vibration was being transmitted to the chassis.
anyhoo,after feeling roughness, when turning by hand,i took off the spring clip, removed the fan. knock out the small locating clip for the fan, and then with a flat punch, drive back the locating/holding tangs, on the motor body. carefully remove front, and back plates. remove motor. there are two bearings on these motors, and are atypical of this type. the back bearing is a plain bearing made from phospher bronze, and only requires checking the surface, and then filling the reservoir at the bottom, with good high melting point grease, and some on the shaft. the front bearing is a roller type, and it will be obvious, if it is no longer any good. same as on your timing/balance rollers.
there is a small plate that retains and stops dust etc, from getting at the bearing. i used a 90 degree die- grinder, to gently dust the heads of the rivets off, and then gently prised the plate off. now the bearing can be tapped out of the front plate.
for the install, use a pipe that fits on the outer part of the bearing, and drive it home. the retaining plate will go back on to the remainder of the rivets, and all i did was to drill and tap from the back, in two opposite places, and fit two-3mm allen head screws, to hold in place. align the front, and back plates, and then using a punch, fold over the tangs, to hold it back in place again.
half hour, no more.
the only things that can go wrong with your motor, basically, is the bearings, or the resistor. for $8 dollars, and a half hour, man, they sure turn nice and smooth now!

[SoCal Driver]

Should replace them with properly sealed units. Be very careful of the funky angled brushes on the back side. These will break if you don't hold them retracted as you slip the armature back into the housing.

Get a set of the later six bladed fans. These have sealed bearings to begin with and conventional brush design. They are also much quieter than the older three bladed units.

[SoCal Driver]

Front plate of early fan.



I used a replacement bearing #6001Z

[bigyagi]

yes, exactamundoo. i used a small piece of .006" shim, to hold the brush's in the closed position, as i placed the shaft in place, then removed the shim.
i wonder if the later 6 blade fans, fit on the older shaft/pin. is it the same location,or is it possible to alter to fit?
oh yes, skf 603. replacement bearing.
bob.

[SoCal Driver]

The fans and the motors are different. The cooling fans fit the same plastic housing though. Just watch that you get the rotation right when you plug in the wires. Used the set off of the 86 I parted out. Much better!