For those with 3208 and OEM radiator fan...

Topic: For those with 3208 and OEM radiator fan... (Read 545 times) previous topic - next topic

For those with 3208 and OEM radiator fan...

February 20, 2014, 07:34:20 pm

After reading horror stories from folks who've had their fiberglass fans come apart without warning and destroying their 3500 buck radiators, i got on the phone with Foretravel and bought the 28" fan they thought would work best. I'd read on another thread here as to how a mechanic had to do some "adaptation", so I thought I'd better stop procrastinating and get after it.
Tools needed: 9/16" socket, 1/2" socket
Crawl into engine room, remove 6 9/16' fasterners, tease old fan out the top.
Try to get new fan into place, fail, and so remove the two half-inch bolts that locate the mount the fan bolts to.
Put new fan in place, reinstall mount, tighten down those two halfinch bolts (do this now, not later), then reinstall the 6 9/16" bolts.
Done, took less than an hour. No modifications or adaptations needed. That's the way I like it, and I figure that's cheap insurance and peace of mind. I couldn't find any cracks on the old fan, but the leading edges looked a little chewed up. Coulda gone another 100k miles, coulda failed tomorrow. One less thing to worry about before going to Yellowstone! Huge thanks to this forum for teaching me this issue even exists. Never in a million years would I have given the radiator fan the slightest consideration...

Re: For those with 3208 and OEM radiator fan...

Reply #1 – February 21, 2014, 07:07:06 am

Glad it was an easy fix.

Re: For those with 3208 and OEM radiator fan...

Reply #2 – February 21, 2014, 10:34:15 am

Yeah, I never thought a radiator fan would fail either. I also never thought a crew of professional diesel mechanics would consider a radiator replacement on a diesel pusher to be too difficult for them and force the owner to do it himself less than 20 feet from their fence while the whole town watched and asked why they wouldn't fix it. I wish I hadn't learned these things! haha ...Congratulations on being the first person I know of to take preventive action against this horror story.