>Tom,
>You wrote that you used a solid spacer with the double belt pulley and
>fan. What kind of spacer was it? Thanks for your help.
>Mike Clothier
Mike,
I'll copy the roadster mailing list:
The '68-'70 were fitted with a fan clutch and a seven bladed
fan. This was to help overcome the high underhood temperature of
those models, running different ignition timing at idle.
[Note, for the life of me I can not recall if 1600's had
fan clutches. I think it was only 2000's...]
The original fan clutch as a simple piece of metal in almost
a "Q" shape, a little wax pellet (like you find on a thermostat),
and a outer pulley that would freewheel.
When the radiator, and fan clutch, would heat up... the wax pellet would
expand, locking the fan up wit the water pump pulley.
Problem was those wax pellet mechanism's do fail. When they do,
the fan will freewheel. Go out and open your hood. If you can spin
the fan by hand (engine cold) it has a fan clutch. Check again
after a long drive, the fan should NOT spin around.
Since the fan clutches failed, and quite often the cars would
overheat damaging the cylinder head, Nissan issued a recall.
The recall was to remove the fan clutch, and install a cast
aluminum spacer between the fan and waterpump pulley. That
aluminum spacer is something like 3.0" diamter x 1" long, with
the four fan bolt holes, and little steps to center it on the
water pump, and fan itself. I am really guessing on the size,
but just giving you an idea.
Once that spacer is installed, the pulley and fan are locked
together. Well, that 7 bladed fan is really overkill and too
noisy. You get the same air flow, and less noise, with the
replacement four bladed fan.
Reason I mention all this, is I have not seen one of those
fan clutches in years. Walked out to a friends 'parts' 2000...
boom, it has the original fan clutch. Never know where they
will show up. Since a cluch failure means a warped head if
you are in traffic on a hot day, I would just replace it with
a spacer and be done with it.
Nissan had the spacers some years ago (no, they will not be
in the parts catalog as it was a recall item). I am sure
our Roadster Suppliers will have some on hand, or could have
some made.
Remember the fan is ONLY needed below 20 mph or so. Once you
are at freeway speeds, the fan has almost no effect.
Cheers,
Tom Walter '67 2000 SRL311-00547
Austin, TX '68 2000 SRL311-01278
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