After having recently replaced the water pump on stubby and getting a good run of no problems I had another problem that thankfully happened just after leaving the house. While riding I started smelling coolant fumes so I stopped to investigate. Upon stopping I started seeing steam coming from under the hood. After popping the hood I found out what happened, the cooling fan, which is mounted on a bracket with its own pulley, had shredded the bearing for the pulley, launching the fan into the radiator. My radio must've been a little high that I didn't hear the clank that should've occurred to indicate the fan separating from the bearing, even though it could've happened during an impact with a bump, who knows. Anyway, after returning home before the rad went dry I had to start hunting down the pulley bracket that broke, knowing this component is kind of hard to come by. The next day I pulled everything apart, seeing just what happened. The fan did hit the rad pretty good, damaging a section of the core at the end of the rows, covering a couple inches. Clearly the rad was shot. Luckily I had a spare rad that was removed from the old Tracker that we scrapped in 2020. The only other option I have as far as the fan is concerned is to install an electric fan on the rad until the replacement part comes in. This would involve strapping the fan to the surface of the rad, using something to insulate the areas between the fan and rad core so vibrations don't cause any chafing that will compromise the rad. After mounting the fan to the rad and remounting the rad in the engine bay, sans shroud, even though I might need to reinstall the shroud if it allows, the next thing is hooking up an automotive relay to switch the fan on when the key is turned on. While this is relatively simple, the hard part is finding a switched 12v line in the engine bay that I can tap into to feed the relay. Even though the relay is a low power device, I can't just tap off a line for a sensor or other ECU connected device, as the power draw from the relay will probably disrupt the signal going to the ECU with the back EMF from the relay's coil. After probing around with the key on and off, I finally metered a line that was switched. Using a combo clamp with terminal for a male crimp terminal to plug up to, I was able to get a circuit established for the coil on the relay so the fan can switch on and off automatically. After running the engine for a while just to test the system to determine how a standing idle will warm the engine, I found the engine was running a little hotter than usual. Now, I would hope that under driving conditions, air movement will alleviate this. Even if it does, it just means that until I can replace the pulley/bearing assembly, I will have to relegate use of Stubby to a straight run to the job and back, where all the driving is mostly highway driving with only a minimum of slow city riding. I will still have to see if its possible to install the fan shroud over the electric fan to maybe be better able to channel the air better so even the electric fan can handle the load. Hopefully the replacement part gets in more sooner than later.
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