FAN CLUTCH IS BAD????How can I know it?

This afternoon I went to the national park “Avila”, raising from the three thousand feet of height to the six thousand feet. It was a disaster, twice I had to stop to me and put my tranny on "N', because the temperature arrive to 250º.F, in few seconds the temperature had arrived at 225ºF and I could follow the way ( off road) .
I have changed the radiator, water pump, thermostat, changed the coolant, but….
How can I know if my fan clutch is bad? I have read that if I can move, with the hot engine, the vanes of the fan with my hand this indicates that they fan clutch this bad!!!!!!!
Nevertheless, since that my country (Venezuela) is a tropical country, , Can I eliminate the fan clutch, so that the fan works all along to its maximum

Oleaje

you can weld the clutch together so that it always spins. i did this for a temporary fix. you will loose some gas mileage.

The only real way to chekc it is when your jeep is cold. Let it get cold, then pop the hood and try to spin it manuall, give it a good hard spin, if it spins more than once or twice than it's done. I cna' even get ine to spin half a turn when it's 5 degrees celcius out, and the jeep is cold.

The factory service manual has the procedure, it involves drilling a hole in the fan shroud behind the fan and not hitting it, inserting a stick type thermometer and running the engine. Theory is that you will see the temp climb to a certain point as the engine heats up and when the fan clutch engages you will see the increased air flow lower the temperature on the thermometer. Never tried it, I would just replace the fan clutch with an OEM dealer one, they seem to last about 5 years. If you buy one from a regular parts store take the old one with you and make sure it is the exact same length, most aftermarket ones are too long and get the fan too close to the radiator.
One thing I have noticed is that when they are still good they tend to 'roar' when you first start it up cold as the fluid is dispersed, the bad ones I have found don't do this. While that is ancedotal evidence it also seems to be true...

How many of you run a solid fan versus the clutch fan, and if so/not, why?

Mine still roars when i first take off, so it must be good.

Cory

The way i look at it is if it has been 30000-50000 miles and you are thinking the fan clutch may be bad then go ahead and replace it....they are not that expensive and very hard to try to figure out if its workin or not...especially when there are many ways to test..

pete

Note to all of you who said "Just run to the local auto parts store, they aren't that expensive."

Did any of you bother to take note that Oleaje is in Venezuela? Pep Boys, Auto Zone and Kragan/Schucks/Advance Auto aren't in South America yet. Jeep parts in South America are a LOT more expensive and a lot more difficult to find than in the U.S.

Eagle said:

Note to all of you who said "Just run to the local auto parts store, they aren't that expensive."

Did any of you bother to take note that Oleaje is in Venezuela? Pep Boys, Auto Zone and Kragan/Schucks/Advance Auto aren't in South America yet. Jeep parts in South America are a LOT more expensive and a lot more difficult to find than in the U.S.

Click to expand...

Yup, thats why I said dealer, have no idea what the 'local' parts situation is with reference to aftermarket down there.