[Dave at Pelican Parts]

WARNING! Put something stout where the bolts come through, or you will damage the case where the seal goes!! The "canonical" tool for this is the "church key" can/bottle opener, but any sufficiently stout piece of flat metal will do.

What I did:
I put the fan back on the hub, with at least one of the bolts installed relatively loosely. I poked a long screwdriver through the timing hole and through the fan blades to hold the motor still. Make sure the screwdriver is toward the rear of the fan so it is harder to break off the fan blades! Then I loosened (but did not remove) the fan hub retaining bolt.

I removed the screwdriver and then the fan. I re-installed the fan retaining bolts partway. I took three tough but flat pieces of metal (big "fender washers", actually) and sandwiched the metal part of them between the inner end of the fan bolts and the case. This is to spread the load from the end of the bolts out to more than just a little bit of the case. I made sure all three bolts were just pinching the washer enough to hold it in place. Then I turned each bolt 1/2 turn at a time. After a while, the hub popped off, and the Woodruff key (half-moon key) fell onto the floor, where I had to search for about 5 minutes to find it.

Installation was a lot easier, after I got the hub to slide partway on over the Woodruff key. I loosely re-installed the fan and used the screwdriver to hold it still again, and just kept tightening the fan hub mounting bolt. I tightened it to spec, and the hub was on all the way.

--DD