In this page we will show you how to replace the cooling fan clutch in GM vehicles built from the early 1960's to early 1990's, the same steps apply to most vehicles including cars and trucks, like Chevrolet Camaro, Nova, Corvette, Caprice, Impala, Monte Carlo; Cadillac DeVille, Seville, Eldorado; Buick Regal, Riviera, LeSabre, Century; Oldsmobile Cutlass, Delta 88, Ninety Eight; Pontiac Boneville, Firebird, LeMans, Grand Am; Chevrolet full size trucks, S-10, Blazer, R/V's, Suburban, Tahoe; GMC S-15, full size trucks, Jimmy, Syclone, Typhoon and many more.

 The vehicle used in this page is a 1988 Chevrolet full size truck, in this particular truck, the cooling fan clutch had a fluid leak, and as the months went by, the silicone fluid escaped causing the fan clutch to stop working. In our previous page FAN CLUTCH , we described how the cooling fan clutch works, and how to diagnose a bad fan clutch.

 If you are not sure if your vehicle's overheating problem is caused by a bad fan clutch, we recommend that you visit our previous page FAN CLUTCH ,  once you determine that in fact, your vehicle's overheating problem is due to a bad cooling fan clutch, follow the steps shown in this page to perform this repair.

      

     
 

   



   

   

 Before you begin performing any repairs on your vehicle, we recommend that you unplug the negative battery terminal.
 To gain access to the cooling fan clutch, you need to remove the upper part of the fan shroud, remove all the screws that secure the shroud in place, place them in a container , once all the screws have been removed, pull gently on the upper shroud and remove it from the vehicle.   










 - It is easier to loosen the nuts that secure the fan clutch to the water pump with the belt(s) still attached to the pulley, the belt tension will allow you to keep the pulley from turning while you loosen the nuts. 












  Now that the nuts are loose, proceed to remove the belt ( s ), in this particular truck, it is very simple, all you need to do is loosen the belt tensioner, and remove the belt from the truck, in some vehicles, yo may need to remove more than one belt, you may have to loosen the alternator, or the AC compressor, and even the air pump if your vehicle has one,, take note on the position of each belt, mark each one to make sure that you install each belt in its original location, this is also a perfect opportunity to replace old belts. 










 Once the belts have been removed, proceed to remove the nuts that secure the fan clutch in place and remove the fan/fan clutch assbly from the vehicle, set it on a work bench, and proceed to remove the bolts that secure the cooling fan to the fan clutch. Mark the cooling fan with the words: "front and rear", to make sure that the fan is installed correctly to the new fan clutch.





 If the new fan clutch didn't come with new bolts, you will need to re-use the old ones, apply a thin coat of thread locker to the bolt threads to ensure that they will remain in place. If the bolts come loose while the engine is running, there is a possibility that the fan may come loose and end up being lunched through the hood or the radiator. 
- Install the complete fan/fan clutch assbly back on the vehicle, use new lock washers when installing the nuts back on the water pump studs to make sure that the assbly won't come loose, install the belts back in their original locations, tighten them to OEM specifications, install the shroud back on the vehicle, plug the negative battery terminal back on and start the car / truck, the fan should come on as soon as the vehicle is started, within a few seconds, the fluid inside the new fan clutch will go to the reservoir allowing the cooling fan to be in the disengaged mode, allow the vehicle to run for a few minutes till it reaches its normal temperature, raise the rpms if necessary to raise the engine temp above normal, the heat from the hot coolant moving inside the radiator should cause the new fan clutch to engage, you should hear the fan as soon as it comes on, it will remain in the engaged position till the temperature goes down.