Broken Model A Fan Blade with car damage

Re: Danger - Original Model A Fan Blade

Google "fan blade failure", it is common ,even on quite new cars the fans are breaking ---also some articles of porosity in cast alum fans causing failure --the dangerous fan that causes death and injury is the flex fan of the 70s, 80s, a proven killer---but no recall or ban on them.

The hood does a good job of containing a fan failure --standing in line with the fan with the hood open and reving up the engine was a common denominator in all the deaths and injurys I found in online searches.

There are a lot of bad original fans, there are also good original fans ---the argument that they are going to fail is valid, everything will eventually fail in use ---the aluminum replacement will fail ---some have already failed, the taper has wallowed out, machining defects, pulleys split off--- some due to misuse and improper installation ---this has also caused failure of original fans

All fans are dangerous ----except perhaps the rubber bladed vacuum defroster fan.
 
29ModelA said:
The Snyders aluminum fan would be far more reliable... especially if you just use an over the counter fan from the auto parts. Usually those last about 2-4 years.
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I an getting one from Mattsons Radiator to go with the new 11 fin per inch radiator.
 
I'm going to make a fan out of an old mower blade! They never break! I've hit things that would have taken out a Mod A fan in an instant and the blades were only nicked a little. I jes got to find a way to create the pitch.
Terry
 
Terry said:
I'm going to make a fan out of an old mower blade! They never break! I've hit things that would have taken out a Mod A fan in an instant and the blades were only nicked a little. I jes got to find a way to create the pitch.
Terry
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Good luck on that! :D
I recently hit the city water valve cap and bent the 28" blade on my Bolens mower. No one has a blade, so I bought a 28" Snapper blade on ebay, and had to drill 2 holes to make it fit my Bolens. I got 1/8" before dulling my centering bit. I could't find any bits that would touch it, so I took it to my friend's house the other day and he used his vertical mill with a 3/8" end mill to make the holes. It got the job done, but wrecked the end mill. My Bolens blade was only bent about 3/16", so I clamped 2 pieces of angle iron on the ends to stand the blade on edge, then hit the center with a sledge hammer. It didn't budge at all.:mad:
 
See what I mean, Tom! You smacked the blade with probably 4-6 HP and it only moved 3/16! Try that with a Ford fan! For drilling very hard materials, I had an toolmaker show me something. Take an old center drill and grind a little negative rake oon the tip. It sounds crazy i know, But sometimes it will get you through. Run it very slow with "Tap Magic". I once was making destruction test samples/bars and they had to have center holes for cylindrical grinding. It was a high temp, super exotic, Titanium, tantalum, columbium and God knows what else, alloy. Nothing would touch it! I recalled this trick and it worked. It's kinda spooky when a center drill will only polish a little spot on the work. Of course. there's plenty of heat treated steel that nothing will touch, no matter what, if the Rockwell is too high.
I straightened some blades for a neighbor by clamping them to the big bucket on my Case backhoe and getting about a 6 ft pipe over them. I had to flatten the pipe somewhat to do it. But they were a lot straighter than when he brought them to me.
Terry

Tom Wesenberg said:
Good luck on that! :D
I recently hit the city water valve cap and bent the 28" blade on my Bolens mower. No one has a blade, so I bought a 28" Snapper blade on ebay, and had to drill 2 holes to make it fit my Bolens. I got 1/8" before dulling my centering bit. I could't find any bits that would touch it, so I took it to my friend's house the other day and he used his vertical mill with a 3/8" end mill to make the holes. It got the job done, but wrecked the end mill. My Bolens blade was only bent about 3/16", so I clamped 2 pieces of angle iron on the ends to stand the blade on edge, then hit the center with a sledge hammer. It didn't budge at all.:mad:
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