Replaced my cracked fan

[429CJ-3X2]

Last week I noticed how badly cracked the fan in my '02 Sport Trac was, and parked it until I could get a new fan. It was bad. One or two of the cracks went almost all the way across the flat hub portion, and one was all the way through for about a half inch. A new Motorcraft fan is $147 at O'Reilly's (maybe AutoZone), $65 and change from RockAuto including shipping. Having had similar experiences as others buying the wrong size wrench for the clutch fan, I went to Menard's and bought a 36mm combo wrench. I confirmed it was the right size and would fit in the space by checking it on my '01 Sport Trac in the parking lot. I compared the 36mm wrench to a 1 7/16 and they seem to be exactly the same size, but the 36mm was just a little thinner, so I went with it. The slightly thicker 1 7/16 would be a tight fit. Plus the 36mm was $2 cheaper at $20.97.
Wrench worked perfectly, and I got the fan changed without much trouble. I did manage to hit the Throttle Position Sensor with the wrench, and either broke it, or made an existing break worse. On startup, the engine idled well above 1000 rpms and went up from there, and the fan sounded like a large industrial fan. I assumed the idle problem was related to the damaged TPS, - I do have a new Motorcraft TPS coming from RA ($13.14 shipped vs $130 at Advance) - but the fan noise concerned me. As I looked for something I might have forgotten to reconnect, I decided I should probably remove the cardboard I put over the radiator to protect it. Doh! Removed the cardboard, and the noise was gone, of course. The engine idles and runs just fine, too.

 

[oklagp1200r]

Last week I noticed how badly cracked the fan in my '02 Sport Trac was, and parked it until I could get a new fan. It was bad. One or two of the cracks went almost all the way across the flat hub portion, and one was all the way through for about a half inch. A new Motorcraft fan is $147 at O'Reilly's (maybe AutoZone), $65 and change from RockAuto including shipping. Having had similar experiences as others buying the wrong size wrench for the clutch fan, I went to Menard's and bought a 36mm combo wrench. I confirmed it was the right size and would fit in the space by checking it on my '01 Sport Trac in the parking lot. I compared the 36mm wrench to a 1 7/16 and they seem to be exactly the same size, but the 36mm was just a little thinner, so I went with it. The slightly thicker 1 7/16 would be a tight fit. Plus the 36mm was $2 cheaper at $20.97.
Wrench worked perfectly, and I got the fan changed without much trouble. I did manage to hit the Throttle Position Sensor with the wrench, and either broke it, or made an existing break worse. On startup, the engine idled well above 1000 rpms and went up from there, and the fan sounded like a large industrial fan. I assumed the idle problem was related to the damaged TPS, - I do have a new Motorcraft TPS coming from RA ($13.14 shipped vs $130 at Advance) - but the fan noise concerned me. As I looked for something I might have forgotten to reconnect, I decided I should probably remove the cardboard I put over the radiator to protect it. Doh! Removed the cardboard, and the noise was gone, of course. The engine idles and runs just fine, too.

My plastic fan blade has been cracked for over a decade in the center portion of the blade. I bought a new fan blade years ago to replace it but never have. It's the original fan blade from September 2001