SO sudden;y my van is making a tremendous racket which I am glad to figure out is only the fan hitting the bottom of the fan shorud.

I dont know how to adjust the relative position of the shroud to the fan though.

the shroud sits high which means it is now hitting on the botom and there is plenty of clearance on the top and sides.

1991 dodge b250 318 engine vicious fan clutch.
no the fan isn't wobbling or lose.
neither is the shroud.
both are seciure just in wrong alignement.

the shroud seems to attach directly to the radiator.
maybe I need to slide the whole radiator down somewhat?
or do the shroud screws allow for shifting position in a sliding slot somehow? anyone done this before?

i think the mechanic shoved the shroud up when he drove the van forward with the oil change pan under the van which may have nudged the shroud up becuase it certainly contacted SOMETHING whenit moved forward.

How do I adjust it though (or rebend it).

want to fix it before the fan breaks or the fan clutch or the engine mount or the ....

 

A. Bring it back the the person that damaged it and have them fix it.

B. It's possible the bearings in your water pump are going bad and the shaft is drooping.

 

And we have another reason not to trust anyone else to change our oil.

Check you engine mounts. If the rubber has disintegrated, the whole engine could drop 3/4 of an inch, and put extra stress on the transmission mount and the universal joints..

The fan shroud is very simple to remove. It is in 2 pieces, but I cannot see how it has been pushed up so far as to hit the fan. You might have to remove the oil fill tube and the little support bar it attaches to.

Mine ('89) has 1 inch of clearance all around the fan, and I could adjust it 5/8 inches up or down.

If indeed the mechanic messed it up, I do not think I would trust him to fix it either, even though he should, for free. But when a mechanic has to redo something, and he is not getting paid for it, I would not let that guy anywhere near my Van, but would document the issue, have another mechanic fix it, and make the first mechanic pay the second.

But it will be a giant hassle that might not be worth it.

 

First off, legally you cannot make the first mechanic pay the bill for the second mechanic unless you first give the first mechanic the chance to make it right. On a second note, although I'm not overly fond of the work ethic of most mechanics, that's not to say that one would not correctly fix something he messed up.

 

Well, good point, that makes sense.

But I would not want a mechanic to touch my Van again if he could not handle not screwing up a fan shroud when changing the oil. I cannot even fathom how it would be accomplished without intent. I can just imaging hearing
" Well we got the fan not to hit the shroud, but now your radiator is leaking and will cost 250$"

But we don't really know the symptom was caused by the mechanic either. Could be Co inky dink.

And to amend my earlier post, my fan shroud can be adjusted a total of 5/8 of and inch, not 1 1/4 inches as my earlier wording implies.

 

First thanks for the specific info.

My haynes manual doesn't show shroud mount bolt locations or their design and they aren't the easiest to see by visual inspection from front or underneath(I have tried) although I can tell the shroud is in a top and bottom half configuration with the seam in the middle on ether side of the circle.

Can you give me some clues as to bolt locations? and type (back nutted or into a threaded hole?)
Are the bolts in slider slots? how are they adjustable?
5/8 would give me plenty of clearance. It just barely scrapes the bottom.

Lots of cooling pipes on top I would rather not remove if I don't have to.

If indeed the mechanic rolling over his plastic drain pan (with a crunch and crumpled plastic drain pan ) did it I actually doubt it would be worth getting him to repair it unless I have to start removing water pipes. So if I can loosen and retighten some screws after sliding the assembly myself I think I would rather try that first.

BTW the shroud is very hard composite material and is not cracked . So it either bent the whole shroud/radiator mounting or the engine or fan is dropping as some have suggested and it had nothing to do with the mechanic. Either way rather I'd rather adjust the shroud if there is some play to do it.

thanks again for the very helpful input from everyone.

 

4 threaded bolts holds the shroud to the radiator, 2 on each side. Then 2 or 4 bolts holds the half's together. Looking from the top you will find them fairly easy.

 

I just was looking at my old copper brass radiator. The fan shroud is not adjustable.

I was basing my 5/8 on my new aluminum radiator. Where the bolts attach on this new radiator has a 5/8" slot, But upon closer inspection it could not be adjusted up or down 5/8".

In fact I just took another look and my 5/8 estimate is down to 3/8.

You might be able to raise the radiator, but I think something else is wrong.
Possibilities:

The shroud has warped
The fan is drooping on the waterpump.
The mechanic wanted your fan and fan clutch and swapped them out with some junk he had lying around, now the fan is too big and not offset right.

The engine mounts have failed and the whole engine is sitting lower.

The crossmember/ engine support has rusted through/ bent.

The mechanic stripped the Oil pan bolt, and jacked up the engine to replace the Pan, but didn't disconnect the engine mounts, so they broke, and he gave up and tapped the stripped hole with a bigger tap and gave you a new drain plug out of generosity.

Look how much faith I have in some mechanics!

 

WOW.........

 

My faith in mechanics is similar which is why I watched him change the thermostat and that is all he did except then ride over the plastic pan he used to catch the drippage.

Today I found if I put a shim in between the radiator and the front of the car it helped quite a bit. Its a very slight misalignement.

And actually I no longer blame the mechanice at all.

What I realize has happened is when I replaced the thermostat (not the oil as I said earlier) the motor now properly heats up which engages the vicous fan more so it happens more.(I changed the thermostat because the engine never got hot and it was racing because the emission system kept trying to warmup the engine.)

There is an alignment issue which I will solve by a little light tapping of mounting brackets bending the radiator mounts (hopefully without breakign any water systems.) or grinding a bit of the shroud with a grinder bit.

I'll check the motor mounts though because that is a good thought.
Hopefully its not that.

The fan hitting the shroud sure causes a racket though. You'd think it had thrown a rod through the head with the way it sounds.