1948 Ford Fan Hub Oil

35ragtop

35ragtop

Senior Member
Hi ,
Just wondering what oil /lubricant is recommended for the fan hub?
Im thinking about packing it with corn head grease as I assemble it, but refilling through that tiny hole may cause headaches down the track.
Your opinions appreciated as always
thanks
Dave
By the way I tried a search but nothing relevant came up .
 
I used motor oil. It doesn't need much and the excess should be drained off. Don't believe I would use corn head grease.
 
Thanks, Im intrigued to know how the heck oil stays in there. There are a couple of deep grooves on the shaft which I assume prevents the oil coming out of the hub by interrupting it I guess. There is no seal between shaft and hub.
Ol Henry's team certainly thought through all the engineering ideas carefully.
After cleaning it all out on two fans that I have, it appeared to be a mix of grease and oil. Who knows what got bunged in there over 74 years
 
35 The grooves in the shaft acts like threads on a screw, to pull the oil back into the hub. When I got my '46, I removed the rad to have it cleaned and pressure tested, which meant I had to remove the fan assembly. I took the fan apart to clean and inspect for wear. I found the a previous owner installed a lip seal, held in place with silicone sealant, in the back end of the hub. I removed that, cleaned and reassembled the fan. Put a few ounces of oil (15/40 in my case) in the hub, inverted the fill hole until drainage of the oil stopped, and put the fill screw back in. I have no leakage of oil from the fan hub. If I want to change to gear oil, I'll have to remove and disassemble the fan hub to get the motor oil out, as the "stand tube" in the hub doesn't allow the oil to be drained.
 
Well thank you guys for the information, I did wonder what the reason behind that upstand on the filler hole was. Now I know. I will use the 85 gear oil as suggested.
As usual, respondents on this site are very helpful
Dave
 
D. Jones said:
I tried grease, it didn't work. I finally made up a sealed bearing unit for mine and love it.
Click to expand...
Yup, my original setup lasted about 10 minutes after I bought the vehicle. I’ve had sealed bearings in it for the last 7 years.
I was not impressed with the original fan hub design.
 
Mac VP said:
Do not use grease. The original spec was to use 30 wt motor oil. Later service bulletin said to use 85 wt gear oil. Either one is fine but I lean toward the gear oil. There is a unique method of filling the hub with oil…….be sure to follow the instructions that Ford outlined for the process. Here’s the link to the instructions plus lots of info on the unit.

http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_oilfilledfan-servicetips.htm
Click to expand...

Mac, this is great information and thank you for putting the instructions together!! Guess what I'm going out to do first thing tomorrow morning, as I just changed the oil and filter!!

Regards....Dick.
 
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