John Conway

Hello Folks, Thanks for keeping this board going and for the ad. Car is an E300 diesel. Problem stated when tensioner spring went on highway. Fortunately it defaulted to run. Wired up the tensioner with bailing wire and rode 1k miles home. Now I'm into the mysterious world of the tensioner and the fan. After two rounds of bloody knuckles I have noticed that the fan wobbles. Not a little but a lot. It looks fine when it runs but if I hold the blades it will rock back and forth by about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The bolts holding the fan to the clutch are fine and it wobbles as a complete unit. I tried the center bolt that attaches the clutch/fan combo to the pump and that is tight. I would like to fix it if in fact it's a problem but am not sure what would cause the wobble. Of course I will discover once removed but since it's such a PIA to get into the space (not kidding on bloody knuckles) I would like to have it figured out before I attempt another repair. Thanks in advance

kajtek1

Sounds like the clutch bearing lost some *****, fluid leaked out and the fan is not pumping anything.
Take the engine fan off. It is relatively easy when you have shortened Allen wrench with pipe extension and a tool to hold the clutch, like big screwdriver jammed between clutch bolt and car frame.
I did that and drove my 606 engine for 3 years in temperatures up to 114F without overheating. I had newer radiator though.