oil bath fan hub

burnette

Senior Member
how much play is reasonable ,or should there be no play. i cleaned and painted the fan hub add new oïl spins great,but theres some play side to side.
some guys told me to install the newer hubs with sealed bearings. them seal bearings will never last 75 years.
 
Personally, I think the original design hub is pretty "cave man."
It was the first thing I changed on my truck. I went with a hub with two sealed bearings made by a guy up in Canada. (Luke Balogh) We make the bearings used in the application (I work for a bearing manufacturer). At the rpm a flathead turns, if the bearings don't get contaminated, they will easily outlast the 30 or so years I have left on planet Earth.....
 

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The shaft is heat treated and pretty darn hard. Usually the part that wears is the spindle bearing (21A-8626) which we reproduced. This should snug up the fit for you. We also stock the two paper gaskets.

This link will tell you all about this fan assembly. Yes, it’s a pretty crude (simple) design but it works quite well as long as you remember to lubricate it per the factory instructions.

http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_oilfilledfan-servicetips.htm
 
1948F1Pickup has the best solution. In 1999 I also made a custom pulley with really heavy duty bearings and never had to worry about that fan hub again. I think DRAKE also sells them at a fair price. The price of a chunk of 6061 aluminum makes buying "one done" a better move. You can also make spacers to fine tune fan location.
 

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At our shop we have made ball bearing fan hubs, the first one for my own '47. The oil reservoir hub was not one of Ford's Better Ideas". After two hubs began to fail, we designed and built the first hub. The original does not have bearings or bushings. It depends on an oil film to prevent self destruction, usually from over tightening the belt. The two sealed ball bearings in my car's new hub have lasted over 25 years. We get $395 each, which is cheap, when compared to replacing a ruined radiator when the fan goes into it.
 
supereal: Please post a photos of your ball bearing fan hub. By the way, you are correct about the price, all things considered. Are you using CNC to make them?
 
At our shop we have made ball bearing fan hubs, the first one for my own '47. The oil reservoir hub was not one of Ford's Better Ideas". After two hubs began to fail, we designed and built the first hub. The original does not have bearings or bushings. It depends on an oil film to prevent self destruction, usually from over tightening the belt. The two sealed ball bearings in my car's new hub have lasted over 25 years. We get $395 each, which is cheap, when compared to replacing a ruined radiator when the fan goes into it.

That's exactly what I paid for mine.
 
1948F1Pickup has the best solution. In 1999 I also made a custom pulley with really heavy duty bearings and never had to worry about that fan hub again. I think DRAKE also sells them at a fair price. The price of a chunk of 6061 aluminum makes buying "one done" a better move. You can also make spacers to fine tune fan location.

Yup, $170 is pretty darn fair......

https://www.bobdrake.com/FordItem.aspx?Item=21A-8600-K
 
The shaft is heat treated and pretty darn hard. Usually the part that wears is the spindle bearing (21A-8626) which we reproduced. This should snug up the fit for you. We also stock the two paper gaskets.

This link will tell you all about this fan assembly. Yes, it’s a pretty crude (simple) design but it works quite well as long as you remember to lubricate it per the factory instructions.

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



when you say snug up ,i got a little play. i will measure it this weekend . if i,m in the specs i going to leave it there. but if i got to much play i will install a hub. 90 $ for bushing and 160$ for hub.
 
i had it all apart last winter it spinned good but i didn,t try side to side. i had temporarly installed my radiator to fire it up. i,m removing my radiator this weekend to get it recored. and the fan hub will be easly accessible ! i sure don,t want it to go through my new radiator !!!
003_1a99cb448b28143b722234ba93786c4f54a2bd2b.jpg
 
Burnette: Buy the new and improved ball bearing unit and be worry free. It's worth the peace of mind. Also, if possible,reduce the size of your photos for easier viewing.
 
thanks 19fordy ! i think your right i,m sometimes cheap ! i would of liked to save a few dollars .
i don,t know how to reduce the pictures ! i,m not very good with computors ! next time i post a picture i will try harder.
 
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