Genius trick for installing the fan clutch

[jeffnhiscars]

You guys are making this too complicated. You hold the fan steady then turn on the rotisserie motor and spin the car til the clutch is snug

[AndrewBird]

If your fan clutch is good, there will be enough resistance to just hold the blades and turn the whole thing. No need to hold the blades and turn the nut.

And it is definitely a good idea to tighten the nut more than just by hand. I've had the fan come loose and start to wobble. It didn't come completely off, but got loose enough the blades started to contact the front of the engine (M50 vanos unit).

[b*saint]

I rotate the car upright

[e30onBBSs]

Good way it seems if you dont accidently let it drop. I lined it up then put a hockey goaly stick between the clutch and radiator then get it threaded and pull out the stick

[spdracrm3]

yea not for the faint of heart but once you do it a few times it becomes easy

[Kershaw]

^ that sounds scary. Lol

You must have big hands...it did not take me much time to install the fan clutch.

Note: this is a tip for when the radiator is in place. Without the radiator, it's a piece of cake obviously.

[spdracrm3]

Really fast way is to start engine, hold fan square and bam in 1 second self threads. Just be sure to let go as soon as it starts on hub....

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk

[dnguyen1963]

You must have big hands...it did not take me much time to install the fan clutch.

[Kershaw]

I read this on bimmerfest, I'd post the link but I'm not sure linking out is OK. So I'll copy paste.

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Just replaced my defective "MTC" Fan Blade.

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.

Install takes less than 10 seconds!


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I can confirm it takes 10 seconds. And that's with wrapping the fan nut in string. Absolutely genius idea. I pulled that string like starting a lawnmower and just watched it magically thread itself. Had I known this 10 years ago, I would have saved hours of time.