Mechanical Fan Clutch Replacement 2005 2.8 L

For those of you with a 2005 or later 2.8 L, especially in the U.S., replacing the thermostatic clutch on the mechanical fan may not be as expensive or difficult as you may think.

While Chrysler is currently wanting $220 for a OEM replacement, Hayden now makes a severe duty aftermarket replacement, P/N 2905, $55 USD at OReillys. Ordered mine at 8:30 last Friday night, they had it in the store early Saturday morning.

Instead of ordering the Miller special tool and pins for holding the clutch pulley - Miller wanted a total of $130 for the tool and pins which are sold separately - NAPA sells a universal fan clutch pulley holding tool, which includes the screw in pins for holding a late model Chrysler face pin pulley, for $25.

Instead of buying one of the flat thin fan clutch tools, which have a tendency to spread apart and round off the nut on the clutch, which is 36 MM, you can go to a place such as Northern Tool and buy a big combination wrench in 36 MM or 1 - 7/16 (which is 36.5 MM). I picked up the latter at Northern Tool for $15. Not only will these wrenches not spread out, they're stout enough and long enough that an adult of nominal strength should have no problem breaking loose and retorquing the new clutch to 75 to 100 ft/lbs.

I'd recommend breaking loose the nut on the old clutch before you begin pulling other stuff loose, just in case you run into difficulties or decide you need a second body to help.

You'll need to detach the one A/C line that's attached to the fan shroud and flop it back out of the way - just a matter of cutting the tystraps holding them and putting new ones in later. You'll also need to pull up some slack in the small hose that runs from the radiator across the shroud, pull it out of it's mounts, and flop it back over the engine out of the way as well.

There's two 10 mm bolts holding the fan shroud in place, one on each side just below the intercooler hoses.

Once you have the old clutch broken loose, and have the above interference out of the way, then go ahead and unscrew the old clutch off the pulley and let it drop down gently inside the fan shroud. You can then carefully manuever the fan/clutch and shroud upward, working the shroud around hoses and such, until you get it high enough that you can slip the old fan and clutch out from under the shroud and out of the vehicle - you don't need to completely pull the shroud out of the vehicle.

Once on the ground, a 13 mm socket or wrench will remove the 4 bolts holding the fan blades to the clutch - they're only torqued to 12 ft/lbs and not that difficult. Just make sure you note which way the fan blades go on and don't install them backwards on the new clutch!!!

After that, it's simply a matter of going in reverse to reintall everything. I'd recommend getting the fan shroud back in place and bolted in before you try screwing the new clutch onto the pulley - makes it easier to hold that heavy clutch and fan while you're trying to get the threads started.

So far, I just started it up and idled in the parking lot, but even then I noticed a definite difference in air flow.

A friend in Charlotte NC, Ranger1, said he noticed a definite difference in the coldness of the A/C and EGT's dropping much quicker, plus you can hear that fan roar when it's hot and intially taking off in stop and go traffic.

On my old clutch, I noticed a thick accumulation of gummed up dirt in one spot where the fluid had been leaking out.

New fan

Mitchell, Alan here in San Antonio, my fan wiring harness was never connected from the factory took an arm twisting at Ancira to get Judd to pull the grill and re-connect it I never heard my fan come on and did some serious overheating out west pulling a Ranger before the reflash.P.S. I should have joined in 05' but followed along anyway

Thanks for the info retmil46. Us "spark infested" Liberty owners can use your method to replace our own clutch fans though I suspect the part numbers may vary.

Hmmm... from what I understand, the gassers only have a mechanical fan if they have the complete tow package - otherwise it's strictly an electrical setup. All the oil burners got a mechanical fan regardless.

But then, I'm really only familiar with 05 and 06 - did 04 and earlier gassers still have a mechanical fan standard?

At the least, with all the other inherent "challenges" that DC designed into the diesel version, the fan clutch has been one of the easier ones to "unchallenge".

I'm not positive if you're 100% right Mitchell but I do know that the 04 gasser Liberty's came stock with the electric rad fan alone and yes if they have OEM the trailer package like mine they also included a mechanical clutch fan.

Was talking with my friend in Charlotte tonight, and we came up with an interesting idea -

It seems from looking at the FSM and the specs, that the fan clutch on both the CRD and the V6 use the same bolt hole spacing and pattern for mounting the fan blades to the clutch.

IOW, assuming the blades would clear the shroud and other components, you could swap the fan blades from a V6 to a CRD and vice versa.

The CRD has an old-fashioned-looking 5 bladed metal fan that looks like something off my old '65 Mustang, while my friend in Charlotte says his '02 V6 Liberty has a 7 bladed nylon fan that moves quite a bit of air.

My friend is going to do some measurements in the morning, between his 05 CRD and 02 V6. If the fan blades will work dimensionally on either vehicle, that might be an interesting mod to try.

A side note - interestingly, the fan clutch for the V6 and the CRD both seem to have the same setpoint for kicking into full engagement - ie, roughly 200F.

I stand corrected - my friend e-mailed today and said the mechanical fan on his 02 V6 is a 11 bladed beast. Diameter and other dimensions so far check out. I can get one online for around $50. Looks like I'll be doing one more mod to the CRD.

TonyCRD said:

I wouldn't mess around with it, have you seen the size of the blades on the CRD fan?

The 3.7 came OEM with only the electrical fan. The CRD didn't, all your electrical fan does is kick in when you have A/C on.

So..imo...on the 3.7 the mechanical fan is a secondary while on the CRD it is the primary fan. The 2002-2004 CRD's don't have an electrical fan....only the mechanical one.

Click to expand...

Beg to differ with respect - at least over here in the U.S., the 3.7 L V6 Libertys came with an additional mechanical viscous clutch fan if they had the heavy duty factory tow package. From looking at the specs and dimensions, the viscous clutch is virtually identical between the CRD and the V6 with tow package - only discernable difference I've been able to come up with is the depth of the cooling fins, and the V6 being rated for "heavy duty" and the CRD being rated for "severe duty".

My friend in Charlotte NC has both an 02 V6 with tow package, and an 05 CRD, so he's been able to do a direct side-by-side comparison. The 11 bladed nylon fan is a virtual copy, albeit smaller, of the fans I saw put on the engines of Class 8 trucks during the 12 years I worked for Freightliner - and believe me, they'll move a crapload of air once the clutch is engaged. My friend says that with the clutch engaged, the 11 bladed fan on the V6 is a hurricane compared with the 5 bladed metal fan on the CRD.

With an intercooler and air-cooled combo ******/AC condenser on our CRD's, it seems we'd want a fan that moves more air.

My fan clutch failed on my `05 CRD at about 80K miles. I used a very large crescent wrench that opens real large to remove and replace the clutch hub. It was not difficult, I think the entire process took me 45 minutes or so.
After replacing it the A/C worked properly again. I figured out what was bugging my A/C when the engine temp came up 3/4ths on the gauge while pulling my trailer heavily loaded with lumber climbing a steep bridge over a large river. I checked the fan hub as soon as I got home and sure enough it was not locking up.
The only other failure I have had was my rear brake calipers started dragging, both of them ironically, at about 95K miles. I have about 125K now, and the Liberty CRD continues to impress me.

Jeff

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