fan balancing

[mmmalmberg]

So I'm putting together my GT6 MKI after years on blocks and bits and pieces are getting painted as they go in, and after making the fan beautiful I find that there are some balancing weights associated with it. Semicircular, slotted pieces that bolt on with the fan. Of course now that it's painted I have no idea what the original orientation was.

Anyone know how to balance a fan? There's a small hole through each of these and the hub of the fan. This could indicate the alignment but I don't really know...

Any guesses or answers or ideas?

thanks much
Mark M.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Yikes! Wonder if you could blank out the center hole and then balance it on top of a cone, and with a level bubble find the heavy side. Or, maybe build a little cone that could fit into an electric drill, and mount the fan onto it, and then spinning fairly slowly . . . nah, that get's too complicated. How about a friendly instructor at the local vo-tech school; he might have some sort of gizmo. Lacking that, perhaps a motorcycle tire shop, or maybe even one of the little cheap balancers at Harbor Tools.
Probably best bet is to ignore this whole post and wait for someone to come along with a real idea.

 

[Alan_Myers]

Hi Mark,

First of all, I'm not terribly familiar with your car model, by my TR4 had a similar fan setup (but now has an electric fan). I have to assume you are installing a metal fan, not one of the later plastic ones. Only the metal ones required balancing.

Generally speaking, procedure was to drill a 1/16" hole through the balance weight, fan and hub, to help with realignment during reinstallation, if it was ever disassembled. However, this assumes all the parts are a matched set original to your car. If you know they are, you can just bolt it all together in the configuration that allows a 1/16" drill bit to align those holes.

All the various manuals I've seen do not give any details on balancing a fan. Most fans only have a single weight.

Some other suggestions for the metal fans: use the original style of rubber mounting bushings, and distance pieces that go inside them. Also, new locking tab washers and grade 5 or 8 bolts with a little Locktite as added insurance.

Cheers!

Alan

 

[mmmalmberg]

Paul - thanks for the thoughts!
Alan - excellent information. Mine have those holes and they are the original weights and I believe I can tell from that how they were stacked. This is what I was hoping, very good news. THANKS!

Mark M.