I had an incident a few years ago with a Moss Chinese-manufactured 6-bladed
fan. Eight months and 2500 miles after I installed it, two blades broke off
at the root, damaged the radiator header tank, and knocked the fan guard
loose. My homemade fan shroud kept the blades and guard from going into the
bonnet. The materials lab at work analyzed the failures and said it was due
to metal fatigue.
Moss replaced my radiator and sent me an identical fan, but a few weeks
later they sent out a bulletin asking anyone who had bought the six-bladed
fan to remove it immediately and return it. When I removed mine, I found
paint chipping in the exact place that the first blades broke. Moss
replaced the fan with a stainless one, but I only used that one for a short
time due to its noise. I now run a Texas Kooler and am very happy with it.
I would venture to say that any fan that sheds a blade will do so due to
fatigue, and there is nothing practical that can be done to modify it to
reduce fatigue, which is dependent on the fan material and its mechanical
design.
Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC USA
-----Original Message-----
From: healeys-bounces+sbyers=ec.rr.com@autox.team.net
[mailto:healeys-bounces+sbyers=ec.rr.com@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Mark
LaPierre
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 6:40 PM
To: Ron Fine; healeys@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Replacement Radiator Fan
Sorry Ron, I have switched to the Texas Cooler but haven't experienced a
high heat issue yet , since install, to comment.
However I did have a question on the same topic.
This fan issue has come up before but I don't recall any mention of
preventative maintenance that can be taken to prevent a blade from flying.
Has anyone
tried adding a couple of pop rivets, J B weld or even a couple of spot
welds to the fan blades to keep them in place without throwing the fans off
balance.
I assume this would have to be done evenly on all of the blades.
This "flying blade syndrome" puts a whole new meaning to the checking under
the hood routine.
Mark
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