Taurus fan motor in stock e-fan

I have already installed a Ford Taurus two-speed electric fan in place of my stock mech fan. So I dont need to do this mod, but I wanted to see if it could be done. And yes, with a little work you can install the motor from the Taurus electric fan into our stock electric fan. My camera sucks so sorry that some of the pics are blurry.

From L to R: Taurus fan, 96 XJ stock e fan, Late Model stock e fan


The motors removed - Taurus, Late Model, 96:

Big difference in size. Yes, size does matter...

Ok, down to business. First thing to do is to remove the clip and plate on the stock xj e fan. Use a screwdriver and push the c clip off the front of the blade assembly. Remove the keyed plate.


Remove the blade assembly. A hammer and punch may make it easier to get the blades off.


Once the blades are off you can remove the motor from the shroud/mount assembly. Both of my test fans and the Taurus fan took an 8mm or 5/16" socket to get the three bolts out. Once the motor is removed you have this with the 96 fan on the left and the broken center piece of the late model fan on the right.

Notice the difference in the area where the motor sits. The late model one only has that small lip with minimal cross braces compared to how much more material there is in the 96.

Repeat with the Taurus fan. I was unable to disassemble the Taurus fan without destroying blades. No big deal as you wont be using the Taurus blades.

There are a couple options at this point. you can mount the Taurus motor in the same orientation. With the Taurus motor being taller this would put the blades out of the shroud. Yes, I tried it:

For me it was way too tall. and there was a ton of trimming that was needed that weakened the bracket too much for my liking.

So I went back to the drawing board- well workbench anyways. I decided to hollow out the bracket enlarging the inner diameter of the bracket to fit the outer diameter of the Taurus fan. For this I used a Dremel tool with a sanding drum. It was way easier to take the material out of the late model shroud than it was with the 96. You can use a file, die grinder with rasp, or a Dremel. Be sure to wear eye protection. The Dremel heats up the plastic as it sands some of it a way and throws some molten material out from the drum. Hot semi-solid plastic in the eyes is not a good thing. Once i had most of the material removed I cleaned it up with a half round bastard cut file. Trim to where the rear lip is removed and only a ring remains. It doesnt have to be perfect, there is a little room between the motor and the bracket. Once done this is what you should have:

The ID of the bracket is a little larger than the OD of the motor. Test fit

Next obstacle is to mount the Taurus fan motor. The mounting holes in the bracket do not match with the ones on the motor. Again, there is more than one option. You could drill a new set of mounting holes on the bracket and reattach with original hardware. This puts the screw out of the thicker part of the bracket and I dont think it would be strong enough.


So instead I put the motor on the bracket and used it as a template. I pre-drilled small holes through the plastic and into the motors mounting ears. be sure to use a bit that is smaller than the hole in the plastic because you dont want to remove any of the plastic (then your screws wouldnt have anything to bite into). Once the three pilot holes are drilled in the tabs on the motor, separate the motor and bracket. Then drill the mounting bracket to a hole sufficient for the screws to turn freely and not bind.

Mount the motor to the bracket for a test fit. Here it is with the stock motor next to it and a little higher. In this pic it looks like they may be the same size but there is a huge difference.


And now for the blades. Remove the motor from the bracket/shroud.

The Taurus fan uses a roll pin on the motors stud and a keyed notch on the blades to keep them tight. The XJ fan uses a keyed retainer plate and c clip. In order for the XJ blades to fit, you need to remove the roll pin. You can take it out with a punch. I chose to cut it off with the Dremel. Make the cuts flush with the stud and smooth out with a file. The offending pin:


Test fit the blades to see how much material has to be removed to make it fit.

The material to remove is the bracing that is on the back side of the blade assembly. The late model blades have larger pieces back there than the 96 did and thus I needed to remove more material. I took a good chunk of the corners off.


The 96 blades didnt have as much bracing on the inside and thus had less to remove

Once the shroud and the blades are done its time to notch the stud or shaft on the motor. The end on the Taurus fan is round where ours is a rectangular key.


I used my Dremel with a cutting wheel and used that to make the key. Do a little at a time- its way easier to take more material off then to put it back on. Continue the key past the groove in the shaft that retains the clip. Test fit. Repeat as needed


Reassemble the fan using the hardware from the XJ fan. Install the motor to the shroud. There are notches in the bracket/shroud for the wire to go through. If you pull yours at the junk yard the Taurus fan will have a ring like retainer with a tree clip that goes quite nicely into the hole that is on the shroud where the stock plug was.


Install blades. Make sure the blades go on far enough to have room for the key plate and the c clip. Install keyed plate. Install c clip.

Its done! And it looks stock too.




It is a little deeper than our stock set up. I dont know how much room most people would need for this since my radiator is relocated forward some. you may or may not need to do the same.

I am not an electrician. However, I do know that the stock XJ wire is too small for this fan. You could use an aftermarket fan controller that will work the fan as if it was the engines only fan and would vary speed or use accordingly, or you could wire it up via a relay triggered by the stock wiring. Or you could wire up with a relay triggered via a switch be it a on-off or a on-off-on switch.

Good write up. I wonder if the OEM blades could handle the higher RPM's of the Taurus motor.

You moved your radiator forward. What did you do with the AC condensor and the hood emergancy catch which goes down between the radiator and the condensor?

the taurus fan motor that i have is toast now. the brushes are dragging bad. so i wont be able to test and see if the oem fan blades can handle it. and i am not going to tear apart and modify the taurus fan that is in my heep right now.

i originally moved my radiator forward to help clearance the taurus fan that replaced my mech fan and my three core rad is thicker than our stock one. the ac condenser is bolted to the rad via a bracket just like stock. the hood latch still functions properly. there is a rubber and metal spacer that sits between the rad and the top front cross member that provides the proper spacing for that.

I did this a while back and I discovered the taurus fan motor turns noticeably slower. The reason is it is designed to turn a much larger diameter blade. It has basically way more power than the stock blade needs and is heavier and larger. Not trying to knock your idea (I did the same thing) just sharing my experience with it. BTW I have an extra Taurus motor you can have if you need it.