Well RubyDoo finally had her first fan problem.

We were about 3/4 the way up to the Tripod flats when i noticed the red temp light and gauge came on. The fan had worked fine the hill climb below then went through a 2 foot deep water/mud hole th3en more climbing till i stopped her. Checked for voltage and had it, we even tried direct wiring to the fan from the battery and NOTHING...................
Got turned around after letting her cool off a bit then coasted back down to camp with the engine running and no heating issues. After getting back to camp i had lunch and let her cool more before starting on working on her.

I pulled plastic cover off the top of the radiator then moved over flow tube and took out the air box and finally unbolted the shroud on the top section. Took off the fan blade with 13 mm wrench with left thread and removed the 3 bolts holding the fan in, after taking the fan out i noticed a huge load of dirt/mud in it so i hit it on my steel Warn bumper and watched about an 8 Oz cup of dirt fall out of it. I shook it more and got as much as possible out then took a water bottle and slowly rinced it through. I hooked it back up the the battery directly and WHAAAAA LAAA it worked fine. Let it soak in water for an other 2 hours getting even more dirt out.

After getting back in i tested it by warming her up in camp then went up the first steep hill i could find and it worked the rest of the weekend fine.

Moral of the story;

electric fan motor + mud for 2 years = fan motor no workie + cleaning for hours = workie again

 

Nice to know. Just thinking about getting an extra motor for stuff like that.

 

I have thought about getting an extra one also. I actually sheered the fan blades off when I hit the water with the fan running. I have read about everyone putting SPAL fans in, but for the money they want you can easily get an OEM fan (and blade) from the junkyard or even MOPAR, and keep it as a spare.

 

Thanks for the head's up Jkat. For us dry landers, this is a good thing to keep in mind should we ever encounter some of that wet stuff.

 

thats great it worked for you that time, but I can guarantee it wont work everytime, I've replaced 5 myself, I've replaced a few on other peoples jeeps and have tried cleaning them out to see if they would run again the insides get rusted and they are toast

you got lucky

edit: here are some pics of the inside of one


see all the rust on the magnets

 

Yeah, I just had this problem about a month and a half ago...almost identical. When I got it home, I took the fan out and strayed it from the inside out for about an hour and everything seems to be fine now. The dirt that came out was nasty.