Fan clutch removal

Rick Dorion · November 28, 2005

On my 97 K1500, I am in the process of replacing my water pump at 100,000 miles. Not bad! However, for the life of me I cannot loosen the fan clutch. I've used my large crescent wrench and tried different approaches to preventing the water pump pulley from turning to no avail. Is there a particular technique? I've done my share of water pumps but this has me stumped. At first I thought it might be a reverse threaded shaft but the new pump shows a conventional thread (counter clockwise to loosen).

Wingnut · November 28, 2005

Welcome to the forums

Do you still have the belt on?

Rick Dorion · November 28, 2005

Thanks for the welcome! Yes I do have the belt on. I tried putting a wedge of wood with sandpaper wrapped around it with the belt off, used a pry bar with the belt on, etc but the pulley will still slip when I 'wack' the crescent wrench. Does the factory use lock-tite or JB Weld on the threads

Welcome to the forums

Do you still have the belt on?

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Wingnut · November 28, 2005

No, they use the same 400lb gorilla that's used to tighten the transmission pan drain plug.

Do you have the fan shroud off for easier access? It's only like 7 bolts or so.

Rick Dorion · November 28, 2005

Yup - shroud off, ready to deconstruct.

PewterC3 · November 28, 2005

there is a special tool for it...but if you don't have one you can use a large c-clamp and grab the lip of the pulley. Position the c-clamp so that when you try to loosen the bolt the clamp hits something that blocks it.

asilverblazer · November 28, 2005

What happened to the 4 little bolts? Holding the clutch to the water pump...

GM-Tech · November 28, 2005

What happened to the 4 little bolts? Holding the clutch to the water pump...

That went out years ago.

cmadz71 · November 28, 2005

I replaced the water pump on the 98 K1500 I used to have. I used a combination of large channel-locks and a 10mm wrench. I put the 10mm wrench on one of the bolts holding the pulley to the pump and used the channel-locks on the fan nut. As I tried to loosen the fan nut, it tightened the 10mm bolt. It worked good for me. I figured if the bolt holding the pulley broke off, no big lose since the water pump had to come off.

Mr. Smith · November 28, 2005

15 inch cresent and smack it with a hammer, with the belt on the pulley. YMMV

Rick Dorion · November 29, 2005

Thanks! It's off.

Wingnut · November 29, 2005

Thanks! It's off.

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Well....How?

Rick Dorion · November 29, 2005

Ahh, grasshopper. I used the 10 mm wrench as a 'stop' and my big cresent wrench and short handle sledge hammer. It took some wacking but finally broke free. Also, I put a grade 8 bolt in to avoid snapping the bolt head off since the fan clutch was on so tightly. I saw a small bit of corrosion but nothing too bad on the threads. I'm the original owner so either is was tightened a bit at the factory or time had it's effect. Once it broke free, it unscewed easily.

asilverblazer · November 29, 2005

Ahh, grasshopper.

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Now I can go the rest of the day with a stupid little grin on my face. When the people at work ask all I can say is "It was funny in my head..." Then they look at me like I'm retarted (not that I blame them)...