James G. needs your broken fan story...

[Steve Plucker]

James G. needs your broken Model A Ford fan story for an article he wishes to do.

If you have such a story you can relate to him and/or with photos if you have them, please send them to him.

Thanks James for wanting to deal with this issue.

Pluck...Who has no story...yet, knock on wood.

[AlfinCT]

James, While driving to one of thr Fall New England Ford meets conveened on Long Island, NY, we were in morning commuting traffic heading South on the Merritt Parkway in CT to get to the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson cross sound ferry. Although I usually drive between 40 and 45 mph, without realizing it my speed got up to commuting traffic speed of 55. After probably 20 minutes at 55, we had the most exciting 30 seconds I ever want to have in a Model A. With a loud bag the fan exploded. When it first occurred, before I knew it was the fan, I thought from the noise I had broken the crankshaft or broke a rod. But, the engine continued to run. Fortunately there was no engine or hood damage. only a slight nick in one radiator fin. Having just had the hood repainted I was pleased it was undamaged.
I'm sure my higher than usual driving speed may have percipitated the failure that morning. But, it would have occurred anyway at a later time.
I looked into getting an uncracked fan and then welding an overlay on it. In fact I went so far as purchasing some laser cut reinforcing overlays. However, after consulting with an aerospace welding and materials enginner friend, based on his recommendations I decided to go to the cast aluminum fan. I been running with it for about 7 years (5000 miles) without incident.

Alfred Meyer
West Simsbury CT

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Steve Plucker

James G. needs your broken Model A Ford fan story for an article he wishes to do.

.

Has he done a search? There are dozens of stories. This is the fourth thread about broken fans this week

[glenn in camino]

Many years ago I was running a very early repo aluminum fan and a piece of the pulley broke off. No other damage.

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida

Has he done a search? There are dozens of stories. This is the fourth thread about broken fans this week

So what?...Nothing like helping the guy out now is there Mike!

Pluck

[Kevin in NJ]

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Why?

What is the purpose of the article?

An article on the fan is not complete without presenting the full story. To just take a few incidents of a fan braking to make a point is just not necessarily prudent. I believe (since no one has accurate statistics) that there is a HUGE number of cars still running original fans with no problems. Yes, there are also a number of cars running fans that should be in the scrap pile.

I think we need to be careful here. There are a lot of people who wish to darn near ban the original fan. I would guess the end result is to bully the JS to allow the repro fan.

We know a good deal about the fans. A better article would be to explain how to find fans that are better. Guys are just taking what ever fan they find, painting them and slapping them on the car. Well that is their bad for not taking the time to learn how to properly identify good fans.

Then to top it off, we do not know if these new fans are really any better. Here it is 80 years later and we know and have known certain abuse and damaged fans will fail. We know that almost every fan hung on a car has failed at some point. We do not know how well these new fans will behave in 10 years. We may find that casting defects take time to show up. Suddenly, 5 years from now we may be talking about how bad these new fans are and have to find some other substitute.

Properly selected original fans have been and will work fine for many more years. All fans MUST be finished in a way that defects can show through the paint and MUST be regularly inspected. Original fans tend to give you hints they are ready to fail, you just have to look. The new fans may fail suddenly with no warning, only time will tell.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Steve Plucker

So what?...Nothing like helping the guy out now is there Mike!

Pluck

We already did, we gave him links to the stories, he keeps opening threads for the same thing in the same week and now he has you asking the same exact same thing in the exact same week. How much help does he need?

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida

We already did, we gave him links to the stories, he keeps opening threads for the same thing in the same week "So what"? and now he has you asking the same exact same thing in the exact same week "NO he dosen't...He has never communicated with me what so ever on the subject...I am just a concerned Model A'er who wants to help in the cause"!. How much help does he need? All the help he can get so get out there and give him some support.

Whatever Mike...Whatever!

Maybe you did...but there may be others who haven't so whatever.

Pluck

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by Kevin in NJ

Why?

What is the purpose of the article?

An article on the fan is not complete without presenting the full story. To just take a few incidents of a fan braking to make a point is just not necessarily prudent. I believe (since no one has accurate statistics) that there is a HUGE number of cars still running original fans with no problems. Yes, there are also a number of cars running fans that should be in the scrap pile.

I think we need to be careful here. There are a lot of people who wish to darn near ban the original fan. I would guess the end result is to bully the JS to allow the repro fan.

We know a good deal about the fans. A better article would be to explain how to find fans that are better. Guys are just taking what ever fan they find, painting them and slapping them on the car. Well that is their bad for not taking the time to learn how to properly identify good fans.

Then to top it off, we do not know if these new fans are really any better. Here it is 80 years later and we know and have known certain abuse and damaged fans will fail. We know that almost every fan hung on a car has failed at some point. We do not know how well these new fans will behave in 10 years. We may find that casting defects take time to show up. Suddenly, 5 years from now we may be talking about how bad these new fans are and have to find some other substitute.

Properly selected original fans have been and will work fine for many more years. All fans MUST be finished in a way that defects can show through the paint and MUST be regularly inspected. Original fans tend to give you hints they are ready to fail, you just have to look. The new fans may fail suddenly with no warning, only time will tell.

Why don't you PM Mr. James G. and ask him yourself Kevin? See what he has to say about it.

And an exclent idea Kevin...Why don't you and James "team up" and do the article together and help educate those not in the know? You seem to know quite a bit yourself!

As for the "Why?"...Apparently you are not aware of the hundreds of other guys and gals out there that do not frequent this site and may not even be aware of the problems the original fans themselves present. Or even the neophyte Model A'er who just bought a restored Model A from someone with original fan...Can't you just see it now Kevin?...this guy going down the road thinking all is great when suddenly...Wham, Bang, Thud,...What the heck he says...fan broke.

Just because you might seem to know everything there is to know about these fans, dosen't mean everyone else knows what you know so why not get the word out?

Pluck

[5window]

Originally Posted by Steve Plucker

Why don't you PM Mr. James G. and ask him yourself Kevin? See what he has to say about it.

Pluck

Excellent idea. Please post what he says. One wonders though, why he didn't say it from the beginning.

[Tudortomnz]

I run the original 84 year old fan blades on my car. Like everything else on this old car, I frequently check it all & if anything suspect is found, it is dealt to. We also currently have a 6 monthly vehicle inspection required in this country which weeds out unsafe assembly. Bottom line is, we are responsible for our cars safety
This original fan scare is turning into a witch hunt..

[Steve Plucker]

[QUOTE=Tudortomnz;686420]I run the original 84 year old fan blades on my car. Like everything else on this old car, I frequently check it all & if anything suspect is found, it is dealt to. We also currently have a 6 monthly vehicle inspection required in this country which weeds out unsafe assembly. Bottom line is, we are responsible for our cars safety
This original fan scare is turning into a witch hunt..[/QUOTE]

Be sure to tell us when the "witch hunt" turns out to be "reality" and God forbid, let's hope it dosen't in anyones case.

Pluck

[SeaSlugs]

i saw way more than my fair share of origional A fans today. one even had 3 gorilla welds where it commonly cracks.... the rest you can just feel the blades buldging from the rust inside. luckily i found a nice used aluminum one hehe

i bet water gets inside/rust just forms and once it gets built up enough the added weight eventually causes cracks around the hub as its like 2 angled pendilums that try to flex with engine rpm and wind resistance

[Randy in Illinois]

I'm not an expert, but for what its worth., My late '31 coupe came with a reminder in it's radiator some 38 years ago whan I bought my car. rebuilt the std. waterpump with the latest repo kit at the time and loged about 7k miles on it. Reading all the threads about waterpumps/fans and in need of a rebuild again because of vibration, end play and leakage, new packing didn't seem to fix, Here is picks of my original fan that served me well. seems to be ok. but after installing the current aluminum fan and a wp rebuild w/ torring brg. It's amazing the smoothness of the pump/fan. Many people have done much research both on original and and repos. but vibration is the destructor, added with age, materials used comes to a matter of when it may fail. and I am not as luckey as some model A'rs that have very good results with thier original fans for many miles. To each his own, where is your comfort zone with catistrafic failure? inspect regulary.

[Randy in Illinois]

Forgot the pics