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Old 04-22-2020, 10:06 AM   #21
burner31
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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Here are two photos. The first photo shows where the crack starts on the original two bladed fan. The second one photo shows the damage done to the cast iron water pump casting. I do not have photos of the damage done to the radiator and the hood.
Is that an aluminum fan?
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Old 04-22-2020, 12:23 PM   #22
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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Is that an aluminum fan?
NO it is not aluminum. It is an original two bladed steel fan. The aluminum fans are cast aluminum and thus they are solid.
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Old 04-22-2020, 12:38 PM   #23
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

Concur with all about using the alum. fans. Have had them on 5 Model A's since inception.
Just removed an original steel 4 blade with blade hairline crack near the hub obscured by paint. I'd toss them also. I've never tried the plastic multiblades for a modified car.
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Old 04-22-2020, 01:19 PM   #24
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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NO it is not aluminum. It is an original two bladed steel fan. The aluminum fans are cast aluminum and thus they are solid.
Very different then mine, mine is a flat stamped blade
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Old 04-22-2020, 08:00 PM   #25
Ray in La Mesa
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

In 1964 coming home from college in the Mojave Desert to Big Bear Lake about midnight in my1930 Fordor I heard a loud thump & emmdiate sever vibration. pulled over to look & found one of my four fan blades had disappeared. Couldn't find it in the dark so drove on home, about 5 miles. Next morning I looked again & found the blade sitting on top of the firewall mounted battery, between the terminals, no sparks! Guess I got lucky. In 1973 while driving my 1928 roadster pickup across the U.S. (9,000 miles & 7 weeks. Trip article in Model A News Vol. 20, iss. 6. Photo of p/u & trailer w/ sleigh at 1973 Dearborn meet Vol. 20, iss. 5.) my water pump started leaking antifreeze & pealing paint off the firewall. Pulled into a rest stop to change pump but couldn't get it off w/o pulling the radiator due to the 4 blade fan. I sat there for a while on the gas tank with my feet in the engine compartment contemplating my delimma. I finally decided to bend one blade back and changed the pump. A fellow in the audience said I couldn't do that, little did he know. Used my foot to push the blade back straight and drove 1500 miles home. I replaced the fan when I got home. A bit older & wiser now, I run the new aluminum fans.
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Old 04-22-2020, 08:24 PM   #26
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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A year or so after I bought my first Model A in 1967, the fan blade separated at about 40 mph, and I’ll never forget how badly the engine vibrated after that. Fortunately the blade that separated left the engine compartment without doing any damage. I always inspected fan blades frequently after that, and, after owning a Model A for 52 years, finally installed an aluminum blade last fall. All my original propellers sit on my parts shelf looking pretty cool.
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Old 04-24-2020, 04:59 AM   #27
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

A few years ago I lost a blade on my four blade fan on my 34 Fordor .Goodness knows where it went but somehow exited the engine bay without punching a hole in anything. I was travelling at about 60 mph. The vibration lasted for about 10 seconds and then the inlet manifold cracked and dropped the generator and what was left of the fan into the radiator . Lots of water lots of steam and a ride home on a tow truck! On the fan I run now I've braised all the joints on it to hopefully stop a repeat.

On the A I've run an aluminium fan for 10 years -Karl
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Old 04-24-2020, 07:23 PM   #28
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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I have mentioned this for a long time. My first Model "A" fan flew apart back in 1968. That's 52 years ago. Go ahead and live dangerously.
I lost a fan blade in '68 also. I will never forget it. It not only ruined my radiator, but the out of balance fan also tore the water pump off of the block too. Sounded like a shot gun going off as the fan blade also went through my hood. I have had no broken blades since. I now know what to look for.
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Old 04-27-2020, 04:57 PM   #29
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

Just did that with an aluminum blade.
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Old 07-24-2023, 01:20 PM   #30
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

I had the fan blade shear and rip into the rad on my '28 Phaeton recently; rad recored and up and going again. I've had to use a new 2 blade fan as a replacement but don't want to leave long term. Usual stockists are out of stock of the 2 blade aluminium type.

Any ideas where I can get a reputable new aluminium one from? (I live in UK but can get stuff shipped via my son who lives in NYC).
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Old 07-26-2023, 09:28 AM   #31
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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I had the fan blade shear and rip into the rad on my '28 Phaeton recently; rad recored and up and going again. I've had to use a new 2 blade fan as a replacement but don't want to leave long term. Usual stockists are out of stock of the 2 blade aluminium type.

Any ideas where I can get a reputable new aluminium one from? (I live in UK but can get stuff shipped via my son who lives in NYC).
Berts: www.modelastore.com/

Snyders: www.snydersantiqueauto.com/
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Old 07-27-2023, 01:52 AM   #32
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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Both of those plus everywhere else I've checked they're currently out of stock
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Old 07-27-2023, 02:28 AM   #33
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

...out of stock since the four fan-related threads in this forum were opened?
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Old 07-27-2023, 04:03 AM   #34
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades



Apparently, these Fan Blades come adrift more often that you might think.
This one happened on the Model A Run in New Zealand this year.
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Old 07-27-2023, 06:05 AM   #35
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

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-
Both of those plus everywhere else I've checked they're currently out of stock
In a July 12th email that Don Snyder sent, he said that he had received confirmation on the 11th that fans were due in 2 weeks. The math would indicate that they should be there now, -or very soon.
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Old 08-25-2023, 04:54 AM   #36
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

Just to wrap this up, Synders have now got in a new stock of fans (they told me 1,000!). I've just received delivery of mine from them and will fit it when I drain the system down to replace anti-freeze for winter. Thanks for the useful advice.
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Old 08-25-2023, 05:55 AM   #37
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Default Re: Good time to check your fan blades

My 2 blade original fan came apart last week, dented the hood and I found the blade on top of the throttle linkage , I replace it with a new cast aluminum blade new water pump, belt, upper radiator hose was cut and leaking and the crank pulley was warped also, The original blade showed no signs of cracking prior so just an FYI change out the old blades out of precaution as someone could have been hurt or killed,
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