German guy
Senior Member
I had an occasional clicking sound which worked its way up over time to a clanking sound coming from my water pump regardless of greasing efforts. I bought and installed a new 'greaseless' version from Snyder's. I removed the fan and simply mounted it to the new pump...mistake. After about 1500 km of driving the new one started clicking occasionally and worked its way up to a clanking over time. On a road trip with 6 other "A"s there were a lot of different opinions. At one point a mechanic wandered past and heard the sound. He pointed out a slight wobble in the fan and a slight uneven gap between it and the pump housing. He pulled a tool kit out of his car and tightened the castle nut on the fan. He also pointed out a slight misalignment between the pump drive wheel and that of the generator and crank fan belt wheels. In retrospect THAT should have been a clue! The clanking went away for about 30 minutes of driving and then returned with a vengeance. The problem got MUCH worse. The fan was now noticeably wobbling on the shaft. I guess that sometimes things need to get worse to figure out the cause. Seems that the interior shaft taper to the two blade aluminum, one piece fan did not match the taper of the pump shaft and made it impossible to tighten the castle nut enough to get a good mate between the fan and the pump. The result was that it would not sit exactly right and eventually worked up to a wobble which got worse as it was driven. Constantly tightening it stripped the threads on the nut. I initially resisted the idea of a plastic fan but finally broke down and installed Snyder's plastic 6 blade version. 'VOILA' no more wobble, much quieter running, noticeably less vibration, and much more air flow. The new fan comes with a cast aluminum drive wheel that attaches to the fan with four bolts. The castle nut turned on nice and tight with the cotter pin hole lining up at just the right time. The new fan is thin enough to allow the job to be done with only tilting the radiator a bit by loosening the lower bolts and upper support rods. BIG endorsement for the plastic fan!
