Need Help - How To Remove Fan from Water Pump - '67 Eldorado

[Varooom]

Hi all - I have my radiator out but cannot remove the fan and pulley.  I took off the four bolts from the pulley and it is not even loose.  I have looked thru my shop manual but the illustration does not quiet match my car. I have a shaft extending out of the pulley to my fan and whatever that thing is on the end of the fan - AC clutch? I tapped on the shaft with a hammer thru a little wooden board, shot it with solvent, tapped with a hammer, tried to drive a putty knife between the bolt plate and pulley but it wont budge.  What am I missing?

Oh, and I did remove the fan from the AC clutch as stated in the manual but it did nothing but get in the way.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Dan,

You need to tap a bit harder.   The hub is only held on be the 4 bolts, so it is probable years of internal corrosion between the hub and the water pump flange, behind the pulley.

Bruce.

[TJ Hopland]

It fits kinda like a wheel.  The clutch is like the wheel and the water pump is the hub. And I guess the pulley is the brake drum or rotor.   You got the lug nuts/studs of so now its being supported by the water pumps shaft that extends through the pulley and into the clutch.   Its normally a snug fit but usually you can just kinda wiggle them off by hand.  The numb usually only extends about 1/4" into the clutch so it should not be that bad.

[Julien Abrahams]

I agree with the others above. With a slight tap of a (copper) hammer it should come off.
The "thing" you are referring is the fan clutch. This allows the fan speed to increase if coolant temperature gets to high (during idling for example) and to decrease when there is plenty of air flow (for example on the highway).

[Varooom]

Bruce - thanks for the confidence to whack it harder!  Perhaps a good motto for my future endeavors !

TJ - thanks for the explanation - you paint a good picture.

I got the fan etc. off and found the water pump shaft (TJ's "axle") extends thru the pulleys and into the flange about 3/4" and keeps it from just falling off when the bolts are removed. 

To remove it, a slight tap will not do the trick due to the shaft extending thru the pulleys.  I did whack it a bit all around including on the fan, towards the front of the car, and found a small gap grew between the flange and pulley.  I tapped a very small titanium tipped screw driver with a carpenter's hammer in the gap and it grew enough to wedge another small screwdriver on the apposite side of the water pump shaft, then graduated to full size screw drivers on either side of the shaft and worked it all off.

I'll post some photos after a do my repairs and detail painting.

Thank you all!

[cadillactim]

Don't force it - get a bigger hammer! 😁