ive been tossing around the idea of having a bad fan clutch so i started my truck and popped the hood and my fan was barely spinning so i assume the clutch wasnt grabbing so the fan was just free. i thought at low rpms the fan was engaged and at high rpms it was free. i can spin the fan when the truck is off. can somone shed some light on how this should be working or operating

 

If you fan spins freely when your truck is off you need a new clutch.
Normally there should be some resistance when you try to spin it, maybe 1/2 a turn then it stops.
Common problem

 

no mine turns with very little if any resistance

 

Then either it or the water pump isdone, get a new one (summitracing.com has a severe duty clutch for our trucks) or pull it all out and go with electric fans.

 

i would rather go electric. but i dont want to shell out $500 for a e fan setup.i dont think its the water pump its not giving any indication of being gone the trucks temp is great and theres no noises coming from it. how can i test the clutch fan

 

You already did. If it moves with little or no resistance and you can't wiggle the water pump pulley around with the serpentine belt off, then it's the fan clutch.

 

There is a small 'bimetallic coil' thermostat on the front of the clutch that 'locks it up solid' when the air flowing over the bimetallic goes over 220 degrees F.

When the truck is 'dead cold' the silicone fluid inside the clutch is like tar and makes the fan blades turn faster until the silicone warms up. As the silicone warms up it behaves more like honey and allows the fan blades to slip more, eventually only allowing the fan blades to turn at 800-900 rpm even if the engine rpm is higher.

There is a section in the Ram Truck Field Service manual about how to check the clutch using a heat gun and partially blocking flow through the radiator. This is the way to find if the clutch is bad.