Horton fan clutch

[Bobby]

I have an 01 Cat powered KW with a Horton fan clutch. The truck has 247K miles. The Clutch fan is working properly, but it's started squeeking recently. I'm pretty sure it's the rear bearing on the fan clutch.

I put one end of a piece of rubber hose up next to the back of the housing while it's running and the other end to my ear and that's were the squeeking is coming from.

Dry bearing, I'm sure. So How can I get some grease in there with out R/R -ing the fan clutch. That would be so nice and much easier on the pocket book.

[pdm]

You could try taking the belts off & spinning the fan hub to see if it feels smooth or not. Maybe squirt a little water on the belts to see if the noise changes.

Keep in mind that it can make quite a mess if it lets go while driving. Probably take the fan & rad out........

[tankyanker]

i dont think you can really, get grease in there without disassembly. you can spray some wd40 in there, or sometimes penetrating oil will quiet it down some. i'd double check and make sure it wasn't the bearings in the alternator belt tensioner making all the racket, might be getting ready to throw a belt. it's close enough to the fan clutch that sometimes it's hard to tell really where sound is coming from. a lot of times, if it's the tensioner, it will change pitches when the a/c kicks on or off, or will squawk when you turn the truck off.

[Maniac]

i dont think you can really, get grease in there without disassembly.

No you can't get in there without taking it apart, the bearings in there are sealed, WD-40 won't do anything, like tankeryanker said, MAKE SURE thats what it is first.

[Bobby]

Yeah, I know it has a sealed bearing. I was just kidding about trying to get some grease to it . BUT if you could it would more than likely fix the problem. A squirt of grease verses a $600 fan clutch plus my labor would be nice.

I checked everything else that could be making the noise by putting the end of a rubber hose up to the alternator, idler pully, etc. to see if it was one of those, but they sound normal.
When I put the hose to the back of the Fan hub you can hear the noise, but much louder. I also changed the belts thinking it might be from them, but no luck.

I had a Rockwell fan clutch on a Cummins once that was lubed with a wet line from the engine, and the seal would go out and it would start throwing oil under the hood. We fixed it by removing the wet line and replacing it with a zerk fitting and pumping grease to the bearing. It lasted a long time like that.