[First65]

Ok, new problem. The fan on my 289 is cutting into the bottom radiator hose on my 65 coupe. I can spin the fan freely by hand and it doesn't touch the hose. When the motor is running, there is a slight wobble to the fan. The guy at the parts store thought the fan clutch could be bad so I bought a new one and installed it along with a new hose. Guess what, the fan is now chewing into the new hose! How do I check my motor mounts to see if they could be broken? Also, could the wobble of the fan be caused by a bad water pump? I don't want to start blindly throwing money at it.

 

[Veronica]

Hello. You are correct in supposing that the best way to solve this is certainly not to start throwing money at the car until the problem disappears. I would start with the simple things first. Remove the accessory drive belts and give the pully a spin by hand and see if you have any wobble in the pully like that. If yes, remove the pully and see if that wobble is in the water pump impellor shaft, or if it is just that the pully wasn't seated correctly. Sometimes a little piece of crud can be stuck on the surface that the pully bolts up to, causing it to be sitting a little funny, even though the bolts are tight, and the pully wobbles. If the wobble is in the impellor shaft, replace or rebuild the water pump. Even if that wobble isn't what's making the fan chew up the hose, the pully isn't supposed to wobbling.

A bad motor mount, especially the driver's side, can causing the motor to shift enough under load to lean the fan into the lower hose. I would also have a look at the motor mounts, along with how the hose is routed. If you have a one-size-fits-all hose from an auto parts store, it could be that this particular one-size doesn't really fit-all.

 

[First65]

Veronica, thanks for the response! I had checked the shaft of the water pump when I put the new fan clutch on. I couldn't make it budge at all. Sooooo, I am looking at the motor mounts. How can I tell if they are broken? Sorry, I've always wanted a classic car and it has taken 12 years to get one. I know enough to get myself into trouble without help. .

 

[Veronica]

Hi again. The motor mounts in your car are supposed to be a three piece assemby. There is a cast steel bracket that has three bolts holding it onto the car. That isn't broken. :nogrinner Next is a piece of plate metal, about 1/4 inch thick, that attaches the frame bracket to the actual motor mount that is bolted to the block. The part that is bolted to the block is the piece that has the rubber on it. The rubber would be the part that has turned loose. Here is a picture of that assembly on my car. This is the passenger side, while, if you have a busted motor mount, it is probably the driver's side, but, the driver's side is same, just backwards. The view isn't that good, but, everything is kind of clean so that you can at least figure out what it should look like well enough to see what is busted.

 

[Veronica]

Hi again. I went ahead and changed and crawled up under the car to get you a better picture.

 

[First65]

Thanks for the pictures! I'll take a couple of mine and post them to compare.

 

[killer94vert]

If you are looking for a quick fix as oppose to pulling the motor to swap the mounts you can purchase a flexable stainless steel hose kit and position it so it won't make contact.I have one for the upper hose on my 94 and they work great.

 

[rex1965]

You could have a bent shaft on the water pump, causing the fan to wobble, this can be checked by removing the fan belt, and spinning the fan pulley by hand, and see if you have the wobble if you do, then hold the pulley and turn the fan by hand, and if the wobble is gone, then the water pump shaft is bent. To be on the safe side you should have a 1/2 in of clearance min to anything close to the fan. Good Luck.

 

[First65]

I can't seem to upload any pictures from my iPad to the forum. Anyway, the fan is really close to the radiator outlet and this is where it is making contact with the hose.

 

[rex1965]

If all else fails and you can't get a viable solution, you can add some washers between the motor mounts to raise the engine block, make sure you have room to raise it, in addition, you need to be careful of bolt length, because as you raise the motor you will have less threads screwing into the block, you can use a small piece of wire to insert into the hole to see how deep it is, then compare to the threads on the bolt. I don't remember if the bolts are a grade 5 or 8, if 5 there will be 3 tick marks on the bolt head, if a grade 8, there will be 6 tick marks. To check the motor mounts, open the hood, if you have a shroud and it is not broken I would remove it first, and then get into the drivers seat and look between the hood and cowl at the engine, start the car, put your left foot on the brakes hard and leave it, if an automatic put it in drive, use your right foot to give the engine a pretty good goose, it does not have to be floored, maintain your other foot on the BRAKES, if the engine lifts up more than a 1/4" (if the mount is broken it will lift plenty) the motor mount on the drivers side is broken, when you let off the gas the engine will set down with a pretty good jolt, then repeat the same procedure in reverse for the passenger side motor mount. If you have a manual trans, you will have the use your right foot to work the brakes and throttle, be careful. Post your results. Good Luck.

 

[franko66]

I had a similar problem with not enough clearance for a new fan shroud. The fan blade was approx a finger thickness width away from the lower radiator hose.The motor mounts and transmission mounts were solid. I lowered the radiator approx 3/4" down to take care of clearance issue. There is about 1/8" of an inch now between the bottom of the radiator and the core support. I didn't care too much about making newer holes into the core support. It fixed the problem.

 

[First65]

Thanks for all the advise. I don't see the motor move much when I give it some gas while in gear. A little tricky though as mine is a manual. My car was originally a six cylinder car and was switched a couple owners ago. Might this have something to do with the clearance issue? Just a thought. I think that the wobble I am seeing in the old fan is the distorted blades from hitting the hose. A couple are bent slightly. I'll get a new fan and measure to see if I can move the radiator down a little.

 

[First65]

V, I compared your photo of the motor mount to mine. I can't get my iPad in close on the drivers side but I got a good picture of the passenger side. The rubber on yours is nice and square. Mine has a little twist on it at the top of the rubber. I am assuming this is bad. Where should I look to find replacements? When I search online, I can't seem to find any rubber replacements. Most of the online sites push direct mount or some kind of conversion to 66 style mounts to use urathane.

 

[rex1965]

You should be able to get them from your local auto parts store, unless you have a concours restoration. Does your engine sit level side to side, or is it tilted, which indicates there may be damage from a wreck. Good Luck.

 

[First65]

Engine appears to be level side to side. Ordered mounts, fairly confident that is what is wrong. Got to thinking, why should I have to move the radiator if the previous owners didn't have to?

 

[Veronica]

Hi again. The rubber all by itself is not a replacable piece unless you have a 65 K code, and, if your motor mounts look essentially like mine, you don't have the 65 K code motor mounts. The piece that you want is this. 1964-1965 Mustang Motor Mount, 8 cyl 289, RH, Repro - John's Mustang: Mustang Parts and Accessories
Obviously, the driver's side is different from the passenger side, so, you might as well get both. One problem that I used to run into all the time was that the auto parts store would try to give me the 66 motor mounts, which are different. Instead of that one stud, they have these two ears hanging down and a bolt goes through to attach it to a different type of bracket. That one won't work at all on your car.

 

[First65]

Thanks Veronica. After looking at the ones you posted, I can say I actually ordered the correct ones! Now just have to wait for theto arrive and do the install. Will post if this fixes the problem or not.

 

[First65]

Only took this rookie a couple hours to do the swap myself. Fan sits further away from the lower hose. I can measure 1/4 inch clearance now where before it was rubbing. I still might lower the radiator a little.

 

[Veronica]

Hi again. Congratulations. I'm happy to hear that you got things straightened out.