radiator fan problems

[bobpam54]

Hello everyone
How often does the radiator fan blades break on one of these rigs
Its an 03 dutchstar c7 cat 330 hp.
I was going thru a small city just creeping along and I heard this thump and the motorhome started shaking. I pulled over and discovered that one of my fan blades broke off. Which of course threw it out of balance and shook like crazy..
Has anyone don e that one yet.????

How big a job is that going to be
Bob

[bobpam54]

Hi all you guys
I just wanted to follow up on my repair costs and what I'm up to now.
I was able to get the fan at freight liner . Next day delivery for 320 bucks. I was able to limp over to a small garage in town and he put it on the same day I got the fan. Cost 205 bucks. I was very lucky and got the whole thing done in less than 24 hours from breakdown to running again. WOW..Great service from freight liner and very thankful that the small garage could do it so quick.
Ivylog..that is a very good idea and could get me out of a mess sometime. I thought of that but I didn't have to do it.
The sad news is that I'm still in Maine at this time. I haven't been able to get going yet.
Its zero degrees here this morning and its going to be tomorrow morning too. I'm planning to leave tomorrow . If everything is ok.
Once I get this thing pointed south I'm going to hold the pedal down and get there quickly.
That is if I don't breakdown again.

Keep smiling
Bob

[hershey]

bobpam54 wrote:
Holy cow
2900 dollars, ..?????? Wow
My bearings seem to be good...no wiggle there...so maybe I can get by for less..we,ll see
It's close to zero degrees here this morning
I am hoping to get this thing fixed and get out of here.
Thank you guys for your comments
Cold Bob

Actually I had some other extra things done since I ws already in the garage. New belts, they were non existent, new hoses because I new the ones on the engine were 10 years old. The AC compressor was a freak need because the fan piece got wedged into the clutch. Clutch and AC compressor was sold as a unit..
My first question when I saw all the damaged fan and shaft housing was" Is there a grease zirk on that unit? There wasn't. I felt a bit of relieve because I'd never tried to grease that unit.

[Ivylog]

If you really need to get on the road now, I'd break/cut off a blade 180 out to re balance and go.

[bobpam54]

Holy cow
2900 dollars, ..?????? Wow
My bearings seem to be good...no wiggle there...so maybe I can get by for less..we,ll see
It's close to zero degrees here this morning
I am hoping to get this thing fixed and get out of here.
Thank you guys for your comments
Cold Bob

[FIRE_UP]

bobpam54 wrote:
Hello everyone
How often does the radiator fan blades break on one of these rigs
Its an 03 dutchstar c7 cat 330 hp.
I was going thru a small city just creeping along and I heard this thump and the motorhome started shaking. I pulled over and discovered that one of my fan blades broke off. Which of course threw it out of balance and shook like crazy..
Has anyone don e that one yet.????

How big a job is that going to be
Bob

bobpam54,
Yes Sir, it's quite normal. Maybe not that often but, normal. I know of at least three CAT owners, different coaches, different years and different models, all had fan blades break off. One of them had almost all of them break off and cruise around like that for quite some time before he actually knew it.

My son worked in an RV Service Center in San Diego for a year and saw quite a few broken fan blades come in on diesels. Not all were CATS either. They're a form of a plastic and, as we all know, plastic will eventually harden some and have less flex. When it does that, it starts to get brittle. You know the rest of the story.

Scott

[hershey]

My Cummins is belt driven and its fan shaft housings bearings failed and it threw pieces of the fiberglass fan all over the place. When I stopped it was laying against the radiator. 7 days later I'm back on the road and $2900.00 poorer. But....it didn't go thru the radiator... One of the pieces of fiberglass got wedged in the AC clutch and had to replace the entire AC compressor too.

[bobpam54]

And on and on it goes
This fan is run by a hydraulic motor. The radiator on my home is on the side.
Its going to cost nearly 300 dollars to get it here next day freight plus the cost of putting it on.
It looks like it is made of plastic.
I am not sure that it is a good idea to make something like that out of plastic.
We are still going south tho. But for now we are still in Maine

Happy Bob

[Mandalay_Parr]

Your chassis mfgr probably installed it. I would contact them. Cat supplies a bare engine.

[Tim_Nowicki]

Yup, that happened to me long time ago. It was on my pace arrow, gas motor home on a chev chassis. Rivets holding the blades let loose. Lucky it did'nt damage the radiator. No big job changing it on a gas motor 454. Come to find out Chev had a recall on defective fans.
Tim