Problem seems solved… the fan housing always seemed to be very firmly fixed in place but it turns out the bolt on the strap was quite loose. Barely took any effort to turn and out it comes.
A little wiggling it around and the whole fan housing slides right in and fits the way I think it should. It did give me a chance to look it all over and search for cracks. As mentioned previously there is what seems to be a minor crack on one of the vanes but that’s it. I will still replace it at some point but I’m now slightly less concerned that the whole thing is going to fall apart in the next few months.
Although I have had the car for two years now it just wasn’t anything I had gotten around to messing with… now I feel a bit silly for not trying this sooner.
Fan housing and shroud now nicely together:
