Just you believe it, David!
Many years ago I was doing well over 70mph passing an artic in the
outside lane of the M1 late at night in a Sprite, when one of the fan
blades parted company with the rest. There was a sudden BANG and the
worst vibration that I have ever experienced in a car - I thought that a
suspension component had failed and that I would never make it to a safe
rest!
Fortunately, the car did come to a safe halt on the hardshoulder and I
then realised that the car was still shaking - had to be engine related!
I switched off and inspected the damage. The fan blade had hit the
crossmember below the radiator and sliced a 3 inch hole along it. This
took most of the force and the blade did no other damage. Needless to
say, I was still shaking even if the engine wasn't ....
The original fan had failed at one of the rivet holes where it joins to
the fan centre, an obvious stress raiser. The crack had clearly been
there for some time as part of it had rusted along the failure line.
I have taken care ever since to examine car fans regularly for the start
of cracking!
Regards
Paul
----- Original Message ----
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 12:36:21 -0400
From: "davidwjones" <davidwjones@cox.net>
Subject: Fw: fan blade
Geeze, It amazes me the amount of force you guys are describing, when
one of
those things is turned loose. -I mean I would have expected it to do
damage to
the (soft) radiator, but ricochets, and entering steel structural bits,
I find
surprising. --Makes me think twice about standing there with the hood
open and
using the linkage to rev the engine. ---Think I'll stand out of the
fan's
rotational plane, from now on.
David W. Jones
'62 Mk II BT7 tricarb
Cumberland, RI USA
----- Original Message -----
From: gbrierton
To: healeys@autox.team.net
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: fan blade
In 1968, driving my one year old BJ8, which I purchased new, I had a
blade
"come adrift" while crossing Utah at a very high rate of speed.
Luckily, it
went straight into the crossmember below the radiator, penetrating
almost one
quarter of it's length. I removed the remaining mate and finished my
honeymoon, returning to Illinois with just two blades. 37 years ago
and I can
still remember the "BANG" and subsequent vibration before I could
throw out
the clutch.
See you at Conclave 2005
Gary B
(a different) BJ8 aka The Silver Bullet
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