fan on alternator

J

JDakota

Member
I have a 35 ford with a 59AB engine and a 12 volt alternator. I want to put a fan on the alternator and remove the elec. fan that is now in front of the radiator. All suggestions will be appreciated.
 
I am assuming that on your 59AB engine that your alternator is mounted in the same position as the original generator on that engine. If so, the cooling fan does not attach to the alternator but is mounted on its own seperate bracket attached in front of the bracket for the generator/alternator as shown in these illustrations.

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So, what you would need to mount the fan as it was originally on that engine is two pulleys on the end of your crankshaft, one for the belt around the water pumps and the alternator, and one in front of that for the fan. Then you just need the fan bracket with fan attached.

Here is the entire mechanism that you need for sale on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/42-46-47-48...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item1c1f6e5d04

If this doesn't answer your question let us know.
 
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With this illustration the crank pulley will have to be changed. Will the fan clear the radiator? Looks like it will be real close.
 
Interesting pic, Henry. I'll show my ignorance here -- was it typical for mid-30s Fords to have separate belts for the generator and fan? I thought the arrangement on my car was normal ==> i.e., the belt running just the water pumps and generator, and the fan being bolted to the front pulley. What was the advantage of two belts in the case of the Ford? I suppose it allowed the fan to be positioned higher up to pull air through the top of the radiator?
 
Jdakota
I did this years ago by having a sleeve/adapter made to be able to use the original fan pulley with a foreign (Old Honda) alternator. It's worked well for the past 22 years. Cost was 50 bucks or so at a machine shop.
Jim
 
Here is my 36 with a 59 engine and with the generator fan pulley and the alternator with the Speedway pulley. Because of the diameter of the alternator pulley, you will have to run a 3 wire alternator. Ed
 

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The alternater is larger in diameter, that will bring the fan up higher, watch the clearance to the up radiator hoses... I shortened the fan blades on mine, and I'm running a generator...
Karl
 
Here's my alternator on a 59AB in my '46. I assume the radiator spacing is different in a '35.
 

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We did something like that on our AV8 with an 8BA by using a GM alternator with a pulley for 5/8" belt and a 14" diameter plastic fan. We were worried about the weight of a steel fan on the alternator bearing. Also used an extended snout to get fan up close to the rad. It works great. That little fan sucks a lot of air thru the rad.

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FYI, a 3-wire 10si or 12si can be converted to a 1-wire by simply pigtailing the #2 terminal to the BAT terminal. The #1 terminal is unused.

Jack E/NJ
 
CBoz said:
was it typical for mid-30s Fords to have separate belts for the generator and fan?
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Note that he has a 59AB engine in his 35 Ford. That's the engine that came stock in my '47. That's why I showed him that set up. I don't know what the stock '35 set up was. Probably what you said.
 
deuce lover said:
With this illustration the crank pulley will have to be changed. Will the fan clear the radiator? Looks like it will be real close.
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The stock distance is 7 inches from the radiator to the front of the generator bracket (back of fan bracket). That's how much space it takes for the fan. It may be that he doesn't have that much space with that bigger engine on his '35 and that's why he doesn't have the stock 59AB fan but an electric in front of the radiator instead.

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CT AV8 said:
We did something like that on our AV8 with an 8BA by using a GM alternator with a pulley for 5/8" belt and a 14" diameter plastic fan. We were worried about the weight of a steel fan on the alternator bearing. Also used an extended snout to get fan up close to the rad. It works great. That little fan sucks a lot of air thru the rad.

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CT AV8, that's a good job putting that 8BA in a Model A. It don't look like you cut the firewall, Is the radiator in the stock place? can you run the stock hood? Thank Walt
 
Thanks, Walt. The radiator is in the stock location and we can run the hood. In fact, the rad is the original with new outlets at the top and an additional lower on the passenger side. Driver side lower aligns exactly with the truck type pump on the 8BA. We did have to trim the very bottom of the firewall a bit and had to rotate the fuel pump to clear. It is a pretty tight fit. This is an early pic when we were doing the fitment.


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I'm thinking about running my fan off of the alternator, also. For those with concerns about the front bearing of the alternator, has anyone looked at machining the housing for a larger bearing?
 
Old Henry said:
Note that he has a 59AB engine in his 35 Ford. That's the engine that came stock in my '47. That's why I showed him that set up. I don't know what the stock '35 set up was. Probably what you said.
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A 35 has the fan mounted directly on the generator. Nothing like the 59AB set up.
 
Flatjack 9-
That's where we got the idea from. At first I was thinking the fan would be too high in relation to the rad cores, but that's where the hottest coolant is anyway. Like someone said previously, you might have to get creative with the upper hoses.
 
The radiator leans back on the 35-36 cars and that is the reason the 59AB fan setup will not work. Ed
 

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When I put a 59 engine in an otherwise stock '35 Ford there was not enough room for the stock '46-'48, 59 fan, generator, fan belt system. At that time I just used my stock 3 brush generator with pulley mounted fan. If i were doing that swap now and wanted to go with an alternator, I would use either the Becker system with alternator mounted to a front '35 generator bearing plate, and fan mount pulley of the correct diameter for rpm desired OR I would use the Whitney design alternator that looks like a stock '35 generator and also has a fan mount pulley. My feeling is that some alternators do not have a front bearing that will withstand the extra load of a pulley with mounted fan. I know some will say I have done this for x number of years with no problems. However, if you have ever seen one of those setups throw a pulley and fan at high speed and rip up the radiator and hood, you would think twice before going that way again and God help the person who may be standing next to the engine compartment if that fan/pulley mounted directly to the front of some of those alternators would happen to break lose. This may be just my opinion.
 
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