I took the roadster down the drag strip for a bit of fun last week. On one run
I screwed up the change from 2nd to 3rd (stuck it back in first - d'oh!). Heard
a bang but the car still went fine. Got back to the pits and found a hole in
the bonnet near the fuel filter.
Turns out the bucking from the mis-shift caused the fan on my alternator (GM
bosch unit on the distributor side) and the stainless steel braided
(fortunately) fuel line to connect. A blade of the alternator snapped off and
flew up. I suspect it punched the hole and then fell back down.
About 20 years ago I was hillclimbing my 510 rally car when a blade off the
metal cooling fan broke off at about 6,500rpm. The imbalance broke the water
pump and the flying blade went down and punched a big hole in a sheet metal
under tray. It was the only time that car got towed home in over two years of
competition.
Regards,
Phill Brook
----- Original Message -----
From: Jerry Krakauer <jsk977@optonline.net>
Date: Thursday, October 14, 2004 1:52 pm
Subject: Re: Sharing experiences
> While my story involves a partially destroyed fan, it is really a
> testamentto the very tough 8qt aluminum oil pan.
> On an off course excursion, I hit a rather large rock at low speed
> but a
> rather large jolt. Upon inspection found one of the blades on the
> 4 bladed
> OEM nylon fan had sheared. Couldn't figure out how the rock hit
> did that
> until I noticed a bump in the hood that corresponded to the front
> of the
> valve cover. Jacked up the engine and sure enough the rubber block
> on both
> engine mounts had separated from the metal plates. A blow hard
> enough to
> separated both motor mounts, push the valve cover into and dent
> the hood,
> and shear a fan blade on the shroud. The only damage to the oil
> pan was a
> few mashed fins at the front! Who ever said that aluminum was
> delicate? At
> least not Datsun's.
> BTW, cut off the opposite fan blade and ran with a "two" bladed
> fan. Still
> on the car.
>
>
> Jerry Krakauer
> SRL311 00099
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