1st Gen Brand New Aftermarket Radiator Fan Interference

Hi all, first post. Hopefully I found the correct section.

Quick background story:

After playing around in some deep snow late last year I noticed the truck was shaking while driving. Got home and popped the hood. Sure enough the radiator fan had grenaded and popped the radiator.

I later replaced the fan and radiator and didn't drive the truck much.

So, me being an idiot, decided to go play around again after a new snow storm. Same thing happened...

I suspect that while reversing in deep snow the skid plate scooped some snow into the lower engine bay and the snow came into contact with the fan causing some of the fins to break off and fly into the radiator.

Current Issue:

So I again replaced the fan and radiator with aftermarket parts from O'Rilley yesterday. Noticed the fan had a slight wobble/inconsistency but didn't think much of it.

Replaced coolant and took it for a drive (on the street) to top off the ATF. Got the ATF level set. Decided to see how it shifted under heavy load so I used the skinny pedal from first to second gear. RPM's around 5kish I heard a sound from the engine so I let off. Tried it again a minute later and it made the noise again so I went home.

Sure enough the fan hit something and broke a corner off of one of the blades and popped the radiator again! After looking at it, the fan blades swing about 1cm from the power steering pulley bolt as it rotates.

Don't try this at home: put on my face shield and got a timing light to hopefully see the blades spinning better. Revved the engine while watching the blades and they appeared to flex back towards the engine and smack against the p/s pulley bolt. The next nearest thing they could have been striking would be the a/c pulley. Either way, a corner of another fan blade broke off.

The fan was installed to the fan clutch flat, got all the nuts tight and then did a final tightening in a cross manner like you'd do a tire. I checked motor mounts, no excessive or up/down movement while pressing gas with brake pedal depressed in D and R. Also, there's no play in the fan clutch.

Fortunately O'Rilley let me return the fan and radiator.

Trying to figure out what the deal is. Is it a bad part?

And yes I know E fan would solve these problems but I'm just fixing her up to sell

I've attached a couple pictures showing the proximity of the fan blades to the power steering pulley bolt.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas!

 

Either those fans are very poor quality !!

Your sure the bearing is not starting to fail in the fan bracket allowing things to move

No an Electric fans just makes things worse in most cases