Those of you who have replaced water pump or done the cooling overhaul know it is a PITA to install the Fan Clutch onto the WP Hub: the space is tight, the thin 32-mm wrench does not have much room to move etc and etc. Sometimes it can take up to 15 minutes to thread this stupid 32-mm Nut.
Well, I just came up with this trick that makes the Fan Clutch Nut Install in 10 seconds! It was a breeze!
- Remember that this NUT is reverse thread, so turn it Counter-Clockwise to tighten it.
- Get a short section of a poultry cord (dental floss or shoe lace is also OK)
- Use a small piece of masking tape to tape one end of the cord onto the NUT.
- Wrap the cord around the 32-mm Nut 3-4 times in such a way that when you pull the cord, the NUT turns CCW (Viewed from FRONT of car)....See Picture.
- Apply a bit of grease or antiseize on the 32-mm Nut to make install easy (also making future removal easy).
- Hold the Fan Clutch snugly against the WP Hub, then Pull the cord upward. This will turn the NUT CCW. No need to tighten the nut. Engine rotation will tighten it.
bimmerd00d, that is not the issue: the issue is how to start the first thread of the stupid NUT!!!! Once it starts to catch the 1st thread in, you spin until it stops. The engine rotation will tighten it.
Thanks Cn90--When I was opening the thread ,I started to wonder if it was possible to tie a piece of cord on and make it do the trick--will be useing this in the next couple of weeks.
I was just imagining how difficult putting the fan back on was going to be-no room and all
The fan will sit on the hub I understand and with the rope trick I can see this greatly aiding the rebuild.
Yeah, some people spend up to 30 min to thread the 32-mm nut in, after some "nice" language like "wtf" it will go in. This is because the space is so tight, unless you have small child hands, it is very difficult to catch the 1st thread...Been there done that...
Very clever, but sense my both belts snapped last week and left me stranded on the side of the beach...the easiest way I found to put the fan back on was to hold the fan so that the nut was pushed up against the bolt and have my buddy give the car a real quick crank(not start the car) on the ignition.
Another option is to go from the bottom and thread the nut on. The fan shroud has larger gap on the bottom that makes it quite easy to reach your hand up and start the threads.
Does anyone know the TAP size to clean the threads on the water pump shaft?
I didn't know about this wonderful trick until it was too late.
The last thread or two of my water pump shaft is "sharp" to the touch, such that the fan nut is going on crookedly (details here and here).
I'll bet this next question has never been asked on Bimmerfest before ... but I need to know ...
Q: Do you know what the tap size is for the water pump shaft threads?
BTW: Below is a pictorial DIY of cn90's suggested method. It failed for me, but, only because I had already stripped the last thread or two of the water pump shaft NOT using this method!
That's awesome. I just did the full cooling overhaul and they say the first step
and the last step (dealing with that hex nut) are the hardest. They turned out
to be the easiet thanks to that trick. I used kite string and duct tape.
*
now I just gotta deal with air in the system. Everytime no matter what I try
I always get it.
I was amazed I guess or maybe just lucky but I was able to just grip the fan on both side and spin it right on the nut to start it*...then I just spun the fan to tighten it as much as possible and threw the 1 1/4" wrench on it to tighten it a tad more. Just let the engine to the rest over time.
* - Okay, I tried doing it from above for a few mins...then below for a few mins...then I was going to try the string trick and decided to try it from above again and son of a gun, spun the sucker right on. Lucky me.
I should mention, as an update, that I used the rawhide trick a few months after my posts above (when my cooling system blew up) and everything worked out perfectly!
great tip CN90!
i just replaced my fan clutch and this was such an invaluable tip.
for those on the electric fan camp, this fan clutch keeps air over all plastic parts which prolongs the pliability of the hoses.
btw, how viscous is the clutch fluid suppose to be?
neither my old one nor the new one (non-OE) are spinning as freely as these guy's videos below.
these guys are able to stop the fan with a finger.
i am able to spin the fan when the engine is off but there is resistance. and when idling, there is no way i can try what these guys have shown.
although i did notice in both videos, they have V8's and mine is an I6.
Thank you for posting this simple solution. I tried it and it worked perfectly on the second try. ON my first try, I wound the string to pull in the wrong direction. Otherwise it was one pull and done. It was so refreshing to get something to work this well during a cooling system rebuild where I received a dented radiator in a perfect box, broke a thermostat bolt using a torque wrench, dropped the PS reservoir nut into the abyss, and discovered a crack in the bleeder vent after all was installed. Oh yeah, my work was interrupted by rain 3 times.
I can't wait to pass this trick on as mine.
Anyway, I came here just now to cross reference an interesting test by Teklord69 who has been driving a while now, as a test, without any fan clutch whatsoever, and, who has "modified" his fan shroud, for each on/off of the fan clutch itself:
- My new fan shroud "mod"
This trick will be incredibly useful. Thanks for the post. I will be using this tomorrow when I do my fan clutch.
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