Fan catastrophe avoided

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

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Originally Posted by Bob Bidonde

After all of the bad press given to the dangerous consequences of running an original fan, occurrences continue to popup. I hope the diehards who see this post will do the right thing and change to a new reproduction aluminum fan, or the plastic multi-blade fans available from dealers. I also hope the National Judging Standards Committee will wake-up and mandate the use of the aluminum 2-blade reproduction fan for fine point judging.

Originally Posted by mleder

100% agree with Bob Bidonde and National judging should allow for an unmounted fan of original manufacture to complete the desire for those to get maximum points. Folks, it just plain DUMB to run the original fan

Total BS!! That comment makes about as much sense as saying 'The JSC needs to let ppl use auxiliary gas tanks because most original tanks have rust in them.' The issue is most restorers choose to overlook restoring an original fan just like many do gas tanks. If you tell people you have a Restored Model-A, then restore ALL of the car ...and quit blaming your oversight on original component failures.

I know some people will chime in to say that a fan is unreliable however the facts are that a fan can be restored by drilling one side of each blade and then pickling with acid to kill any remaining rust between/inside the blades. Once the rust particles are removed, the holes can be welded closed. Then the entire fan needs to be crack-checked with a wet-mag machine (Magnaflux), and any stress-cracks found can be Vee-ed and then TIG welded. Once the repairs have been made, the entire unit needs to be dynamically balanced so that harmonic vibrations do not cause future cracking. It is THAT simple on making an original fan reliable.

The irony is many, MANY of these fans went for 50 years and thousands of miles without failures. Even when I was a teenager and before, almost all Model-As on tours used a two-blade fan. Only on rare occasion did we see a failure. We knew they could break, so we just knew to not stand in the line of fire if one broke. Many of these fans broke because they were used to rotate the engine when setting the timing.