Club 80-90 Forums

Trying to remove the cooling fan so I can then remove the housing to get to the engine mount bolts.
I have undone the three bolts on the fan itself but cant withdraw the fan (as usual, haynes makes it sound that simple).
It doesn't even look like it will fit through the hole on the housing, but I guess it's a snug fit.
Reluctant to start knocking it with a rubber mallet. Surely it shouldn't be that difficult ?

Hello,

Ho Hum.. working on the CU engine in place..

This is like the gynaecologist joke..

How do gynaecologists paint their consulting room entrance lobbies..

With the paint brush through the letterbox flap..from the outside..

The fan will be on very tight, as it is alloy and will have corroded onto the support on the end of the crank.

Than you have the sketch of getting it out, as it has to be angled in and out.

Then you will want to retap the fan support threads..

4 more bolts, 2 heater cables, and the fuel line... then you can engine out....to sort those oil leaks once and for all...

Happy struggling..

Air-Cooled Bliss..

If you’ve undone the three bolts , just tap/ wiggle it, it will come out but it’s a very close fit in the housing ,

Easier with the engine out if you can remove it

kevtherev wrote:Easier with the engine out if you can remove it

but its really easy with the engine in

OK. So I got the cooling fan off. I managed to get a 3 leg puller on the outer rim and pushing on the centre hub bolt.
Problem now is I cannot get the fan housing off enough to get access to all the engine mount bolts. I can probably access 2 or 3 out of the 4 bolts, but definitely not the 4th.
It seems the fan housing is attached at one, maybe 2 places to the lower rear offside tinware, by screws that I think are seized, and not accessible enough to get a drill or impact driver on it.
Looking more and more like I'm going to have to drop the engine. Am I missing a trick ?

Not for me.

There is a screw under the tinware and the bracket that goes to the heat exchanger once the rear tinware is removed it is accessible.

Thanks Bigherb,
Yep, that does indeed seem to be the one, and there might be one round the corner from that, but not sure what that's holding on.
Unfortunately with the rear offside tinware in place, you can't get sufficient access to it with impact driver or drill. From above, I can get a screwdriver on it blind, but can't get enough purchase on the screwdriver as it seems seized or very tight. I can see it through the tinware via the hole the air pipe to the heat exchanger went through, but thats at the wrong angle.
I'm thinking that if I take the rear bumper off, I may be able to access it through the holes in the rear valance. If the one round the corner needs removing though, I'm buggered.

I finally got the tinware off which allowed me to move the fan housing enough to get at the engine mounting bolts.
I got access to the screw identified by bigherb, by removing the bumper, then a very long screwdriver though lower holes in rear valance and applying a lot of pressure to avoid stripping the head.
Unfortunately there was another screw round the corner which I had already stripped the head on, which I managed to drill out, unsighted from within the engine bay.
Then had to bend another piece of tinware out of the way to get the offside of the fan housing to move.
Also earlier had to remove a heat exchanger due to siezed/hard to access exhaust nuts.
All in all, a total PITA job due to seized/hard to access exhaust nuts and tinware screws.
I wish I'd dropped the engine as advised