• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Clutch fan contacted the radiator. Ideas?

leaf...

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Lake Orion, MI
Hey guys, long time lurker here.

Just purchased a 2001 XJ. Mostly stock save for a tiny lift and 31's.

Upon driving it home last night, smoke starts to come out from under the hood. Great. Upon inspection, the mechanical radiator fan contacted the brand new radiator in this thing, and completely trashed it.

Here's my question. What could've caused that? Everything is tight. Radiator wasn't moving at all, the engine mounts are good, so it's definitely not the motor shifting forward. The fan itself looks fine. I pulled on it to see if it was loose, but no such luck.

I removed the radiator, lower hose as that needs replacement as well, and the mechanical fan. The fan has about 6 tabs sticking out of the front of it, and those are what contacted the radiator. New radiator should go in tomorrow, but I'm debating what to do about the fan.

Can I remove those tabs a' la cut off wheel without issues? I don't know if they're there for balance.

Should I just upgrade to a Taurus fan/aftermarket one?

Does that fan expand depending on engine speed/temperature causing it to stick out more?

I tried searching, but couldn't really come up with much. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Pics would help of the fan. Motor mounts might look good but can be bad, can check the transmission mount and see how it looks.
 
I'll get pics up tomorrow. Everything looks pretty normal with it.

Trust me, the motor/trans mounts are fine. I've had plenty of vehicles to know when the mounts are bad. There's no play in them. I checked.

I just don't want to buy a new clutch for the fan, only to have it do the same thing. I'm just wondering if the clutch is bad, would the fan basically extend out and contact the radiator?
 
The engine/trans is pretty heavy, on my '95 when I bought it had two mounts torn in half and the third pushing and pulling on the motor didn't reveal the bad mounts, and this was the 2.5L I4. Closer inspection of the mounts revealed the tears and the fact it was a standard and you could feel the shift lever move 4 inches to the side from the engine/trans twisting so bad on its mounts accelerating from a stop.

Also inspect the viscous thermal clutch, I could see one of them having problems and letting the fan pull it apart a bit if it was worn out, and let the fan move forward into the radiator. Give the fan a hard push, if the fan can make one full rotation under its own momentum (this is with the engine off and the belt keeping the base anchored) the viscous clutch is worn out. I can tell you, a new viscous clutch the fan will NOT move on its own at all no matter how hard you push it. So if you've got a worn out viscous clutch, and they do wear out often, I'd replace that before driving with the new radiator.
 
Come to think of it, I didn't inspect the trans mount. I don't know what I was thinking.

I'm probably going to replace all the mounts just to be sure, and possible the fan clutch, just to rule them all out. I also noticed that the fan shroud was missing, so I"ll grab one of those as well.
 
this happened to my xj recently. I inspected the motor mounts and they seemed fine too, the trans mount is a new poly performance piece.

There are lots of little fasteners that hold the radiator in under the radiator header panel, plus some rubberized pads & locating slots in the bottom of the channel the radiator sits in. Making it worse is aftermarket replacement radiators with even more brackets & tabs sorta cobbled together to make the unit stay put. Check those and see if there was any slop. Mine weren't overly tight, and I think that may have been my issue.
 
I have had trashed motor mounts on several rigs and never had the fan clutch even come close to the radiator. The one time this same thing happened to a friend were his clutch hit the radiator it was the bearing that the fan clutch attaches to had gone bad and was walking itself out allowing the clutch to hit the radiator. A good test for this is the grab the fan blade and give the whole assembly a wiggle and there shouldn't be any play.

IMG_0430_zps6lcpelgy.jpg
 
Last edited:
Oh sweet. I'll definitely take a look at it when I get home form work.

I went ahead and ordered new mounts, a clutch for the fan, and obviously a radiator. Oreilly's wants close to $100 for the trans mount, so I'm gonna hold off on that for now.

Worst case, what's a good replacement for the stock trans mount? I'm going with OEM mounts for the motor. I'll upgrade the trans mount if the price difference isn't too great, but I'd like to keep any vibrations down to a minimum as this is going to be my daily, and I'd like to keep it as comfortable as possible.

Comfortable in an XJ? :huh: I know.....
 
Just so you know also if the bearing is bad where the fan clutch mounts you have to replace the entire bracket since the bearings are not serviceable.

The bearing is replaceable.

The bearing is an NSK bearing, part number 665325. Available from Locate Ball Bearings.com. Was $60.00 when I did mine. Pic below shows the old and the new bearing.

Takes some special tooling to do the job, most from your tool box, some from Lowes, some you make.

DSCF2665.jpg
 
It's called a Bracket, A/C Compressor.
OEM part number 5301 1002.
Used on 1996 - 2001 XJ, 4.0 engine.
I don't think you'll find a new one. Try a junk yard (low mileage XJ) or eBay.

They are widely available...at a cost.

http://moparonlineparts.com/oemparts/53011002
http://www.amazon.com/Mopar-53011002/dp/B007NQDADI
http://www.moparpartsoverstock.com/p/JEEP__/BRACKET-AC-Compressor/6911731/53011002.html
http://www.mymoparparts.com/jeep/ch...ines-scat/?part_name=compressor-mount-bracket
 
A solution!

After messing with it for several hours today, I finally figured it out. Now mind you, I've never done a radiator on an XJ before. Long story short, both upper radiator mounts are broken. They separated completely. So much so, that at a quick glance, I thought they were two piece.

That's it. All this for two $5 mounts. At least I know the cooling system is fresh now.
 
I've busted those tabs off the fan clutch before as well to avoid what you had happen. still works fine without them. A little back and forth with some pliers is all it takes.
 
A solution!

After messing with it for several hours today, I finally figured it out. Now mind you, I've never done a radiator on an XJ before. Long story short, both upper radiator mounts are broken. They separated completely. So much so, that at a quick glance, I thought they were two piece.

That's it. All this for two $5 mounts. At least I know the cooling system is fresh now.

I told you! :looney:
 
Back
Top