fan clutch fluid

[Archangel]

Has anyone taken apart a thermal clutch for the engine fan? What is it in there, is it some thick oil, liquid grease, or what? I currently have two holes in my Bronco clutch's face under the clockspring (just drilled them) and as far as I can see there is very little slimy substance in there. The clutch doesn't look like it has leaked, if nact it is pretty clean, except for some oily stuff on the main shaft. Clutch is very tight too. However, when I turn the clockspring shaft to the position where the clutch should have maximum power I can't feel any difference in the force it takes me to make it slip - is the clucth working properly only when spinning?

[Dereck]

Hi Melikeystripperchicks

All the oil stuff leaked ut of mine and it would spin forever after the engine was shut off

Nope dunno what is in there.

Reagrds

Dereck

[gadget73]

They work on magic smoke. If you drilled a hole, you let the smoke out and it won't work anymore.

[Archangel]

Actually no, it works just fine - never filled it with anything, just tightened the bolts with some Loctice thread locker and installed it. I can say the car is much quieter than before, and it seems to accelerate slightly better, mileage will be calculated next week as I just filled up. The damn belts still squeel though, sprayed them with some belt dressing after I got home, hopefully that'll silence them.

[grandpaslincoln]

Ewww, belt dressing? NOOOOOOOOOOOO



Usually the clutches have wax in them, I believe

[Lincolnmania]

you need the special fan clutch fluid from ford, and the proper rotunda filling tool
no seriously if the oil came out, it's dead, and no i dont know what the oil is

[turbo2256b]

I used to design fan clutches. The fluid is silicone different weights of it (like oil) effect the RPM ranges which it operates in. A thermal clutch has a coil or bimetal spring that opens and closes a resivour that allows the fluid to flow around a disc something like a auto trans torqconverter which spins the fan. Except for certian models found mostly on heavy trucks they never completely stop or completely lock up.
Designed fans, air starting motors, turbos, water pumps, harmonic ballancers.
While working for this company I engineered the first adjustable waist gate turbo used in the Indianapolis 500 which was a major reason cars powered by their turbo system won two years in a row. Later designed / engineered there stationary turbo test cellls.
Sorry bored its raining here.

[Paul_]

They work on magic smoke. If you drilled a hole, you let the smoke out and it won't work anymore.

I think that's the funniest goddamn thing I've ever heard.

[Archangel]

I used to design fan clutches. The fluid is silicone different weights of it (like oil) effect the RPM ranges which it operates in. A thermal clutch has a coil or bimetal spring that opens and closes a resivour that allows the fluid to flow around a disc something like a auto trans torqconverter which spins the fan. Except for certian models found mostly on heavy trucks they never completely stop or completely lock up.

Oh, okay then, that makes sense. Well after I drilled through the clutch's face for those two bolts I notice some slimy substance down in there, so I stuck a small drill bit to see how it looks like - it's really think and slimy, which would suggest it's kinda slow to move around - that and what Dave said about the reservoir I think explain wht nothing would leak out of the front. Clucth is painted flat black now, to easier attract heat from the engine and act more accurate to the temp changes.

Scott, I looked at the main shaft, it's the regular grime you find on a engine that was there, not the silicone fluid leaks - I have seen how a leaked out clutch looks like, that wasn't anywhere near it. Just in case I have my old space, hub plates, and bolts stored in a double zip-bag in the trunk, if the car ever decides to overheat on me I can swap them back in no time.

[turbo2256b]

thought you wanted my 7 blade fan and clutch

[Archangel]

Oh, I still may take them, we'll see. I already had the Bronco clutch laying around, so I just fixed it to see if it'll give me any mileage gains and silence the damn belts. I might be going electric soon, depending on what happens with the Mark VIII setup I'm chasing. I do however for sure need one of your turbine wheels, I'll stop by sometime next week.

[gadget73]

So you are going to install a fan clutch with a hole drilled in it now? Um, you know if the fluid can seep out of the seals, you should know it'll come out of a hole once you get it spun up.

[turbo2256b]

Sounds like he through bolted it and locked it up with the bolting.

[Archangel]

Thain, you know that steel plate that is rivetted to the clutch's face that holds the end of the clockspring? Well the two rivets that held that had corroded and proken off, so I drilled the out, tapped the front wall of the clutch, and then used two M5 bolts to install the plate back on the clutch. Bolts are very short, just enough so they stick out 1mm on the inside of the wall, they don't touch anything inside the clutch and the mechanism can operate correctly without any parts interfering with them. So now the front wall of the clutch has two holes, in those holes there are bolts, and the threads of both are locked together by some mighty strong Loctite - there's no opening the fluid can leak out through, the whole thing is resealed.

Dave, this clutch replaced an aluminum spacer with a hub for hard mount of the fan to the water pump. It'd be kinda poitless to replace a one hard-mount setup with another.