Over the weekend I had to remove another fan clutch assembly. In the past I used a modified 8mm Allen wrench and a small pipe to break the bolt loose. However with the thermostat guard in the way it’s almost impossible to unthread without the special spinner tool that gsxr had graciously sent me a link to his picture files on his website. The other thing I have encountered was reduced clearance between the clutch hub and the radiator making it even more difficult. Both cars I worked on had about 17mm clearance.
So using a piece of scrap flat stock I had in the shop I made my own. Once I assembled it I gave it a try and had to trim the length of the Allen until i was able to get it past the guard. Then I ran into another issue where I ran out of room before the bolt was completely unthreaded. So I created a shorter Allen socket of 6mm to finish unthreading the bolt. Then I had another idea. Why not lock the spinner do the tool could be used to break loose and tighten the bolt. So that is what I did. I still need to perfect that modification so it doesn’t interfere with the fan clutch guard. Huge labor saver and thanks to Dave for showing me the special tool.
So using a piece of scrap flat stock I had in the shop I made my own. Once I assembled it I gave it a try and had to trim the length of the Allen until i was able to get it past the guard. Then I ran into another issue where I ran out of room before the bolt was completely unthreaded. So I created a shorter Allen socket of 6mm to finish unthreading the bolt. Then I had another idea. Why not lock the spinner do the tool could be used to break loose and tighten the bolt. So that is what I did. I still need to perfect that modification so it doesn’t interfere with the fan clutch guard. Huge labor saver and thanks to Dave for showing me the special tool.
Great ingenuity!!
