Radiator FAN - Clutch or direct ? how many blades ?

[ceejay]

Hi all,

My car is a 58 Century and it has a 5 blade (if memory serves me right) fan and it has a fan clutch.

I have read on the internet of some 58 cars which have a 4 blade fan and no clutch... direct driven.

Tell me about the fan on your cars....

Anyone know where to get a new fan clutch from ?

[Smartin]

Does your car have air conditioning? I thought the AC cars came with a clutch fan, and the other did not.

Mine has a 5 blade clutch fan. I'm having trouble finding a source for a new clutch, though.

[ceejay]

That's an interesting question actually.....

From what I gather, my car was not fitted with Air Conditioning when it left the factory.

However, the local agents for Buick in Sri Lanka, must have installed AC at some point.

I say this because....

The dash does not have the center AC vent. The 2 side vents can not be adjusted.

The car does have the original type AC compressor, condenser and evaporator however, the hose from the compressor to the condenser has been routed slightly differently.

When they installed AC, they must have fitted the clutch type fan.

Have a look at the attached photos and tell me what you think

[Smartin]

Does your engine have the AC-specific oil dipstick extention tube?

Here is my engine compartment (before I disassembled it):

[ceejay]

umm... I can see the dip stick in your photo but can't see the tube too clearly.

I would say that the dipstick on my engine is in the same position as yours but... I will take a photo and show you when I go to the car next... I keep the car in my warehouse which is not far from my home... now I have an excuse to go see the old girl

[58limited]

There were two different fan clutches used on '58 Buicks. The base of the fan clutch has a hole cut into it that fits over the end of the water pump shaft. On A/C cars the water pump shaft is bigger than non-A/C cars. Unless you get NOS/NORS, you basically cannot find a new clutch that fits an A/C car. I took my new clutch to a machine shop and they fly-cut the hole to the bigger size for me.

There were four different water pumps used also. The first part of the year used cast iron water pumps, bigger shaft for cars with A/C, smaller shaft for non- A/C cars. The pump was changed to aluminum later in the model year, keeping the same differences in shaft size.

My shop manual states that the five bladed fan was used on A/C cars.