Exploding fans

[Bill Bain <BBain@IMNET.com>]

Last winter the fan in my '83 self-destructed while my wife was driving.
Destroyed the shroud and holed the radiator, but no hood bulges.  Hans
swears she missed a shift and over-revved, but she says she didn't.
Total repairs were about $400.  At any rate here's data points for the
poor unfortunate soul it just happened to:

1.	The plastic fan blades get brittle with age.  You can see the
difference between a new one and an old one, and you can feel the
difference in the plastic --  the new one is white and flexible, the old
one is yellowish and stiff.  It ain't rocket science to check the fan
blades once in a while.  (Scott Johnson, are you there?  Sounds like a
one-liner for the FAQ to me!).  Too bad that Alfa never made a metal fan
like dem ole Chebys.

2.	While the fan was busy self-destructing, the odds are better
than even that your water pump bearings are now toast due to the
unbalanced load.  Mine was.  Replace it and be sure.  Taking the
radiator out is no big deal and since everything's apart up there anyway
it's no big deal to do it right.  Use new hoses on re-assembly.

3.	My car had new motor mounts (less than 3Km) when it happened, so
one doesn't necessarily follow the other.  You still ought to check them
anyway.

4.	The shroud makes a pretty significant improvement in cooling
efficiency.  My understanding is that there is not enough space between
the radiator and the fan hub to put an electric fan on a Spider.  If you
don't have A/C you can put a pusher fan up front, but otherwise, that's
the way it is.  Some folks have fooled around with using a water pump
from an Alfetta, which is reputed to be narrower, but I don't think it
was narrow enough.  A lot of folks have tried this so someone will
certainly know.

5.	The radiator repair on mine was about $85 or so and I had them
rod it out while they were at it.  A good radiator shop can fix just
about any hole since it's a real metal radiator and not them plastic
jobs.

I don't feel "taken" at $400 for a new water pump, repaired radiator,
and new hoses, including labor since the radiator was $85 and the water
pump was $50 or so, plus the new fan ($16) and shroud ($ 25).

Just some data points . . . .

Bill Bain
'83 Spider