The water outlet on the head that supports the fan hub on my 26 broke today. There was also a fan blade broken off and the tin/flanged crank pulley was bent. Not sure what broke first. All I heard was a loud bang. I was near the house so ran it home and put it in the garage. Fan belt was untouched and only a minor scuff to the left lower side of the radiator cooling fins. The fan hub and water pump shafts turn freely. Lang's and Snyder's offer a replacement water outlet neck but it's brass. I'm concerned that the brass will cause corrosion between the cast iron of the engine and the brass neck. I also have concerns with the brass being more brittle than the original cast iron. Am I wrong with my concerns or should I just order the brass neck? I have a car show/cruise this week end and next week end that I would like to go on so E-bay is a secondary option if the brass neck will be O.K. If anyone has a serviceable original, I would be interested in it provided the price is reasonable and I can get it by Thursday this week.
Chester
There are two different versions of water inlet/fan support on a 1926 Model T.
Here is the early style.
And here is the later style.
I suspect yours is the early style because they commonly broke like yours from over tightening and is why it was redesigned to the later style.
Ron the Coilman.
I cannot help you with a spare part. However I would not worry about running without a fan, unless you are in a parade, or stopped (running) for an extended time.
The brass one will be just fine, but I believe it is really bronze. You could try and find and origionl iron one on ebay but most of them will probably be cracked.
Jason - he has a water pump so unless that goes away, he likely needs the fan belt.
You are very fortunate that the fan didn't do more considerable damage to your radiator ! As Ron eluded to, there are two variations to that type of outlet - perhaps a photo of the bottom section of yours to identify ? I noticed the water circulator in the photo - belt wasn't overly tight by chance ? Drop me an e-mail.
Mine was the later style as shown in Ron's photo. The rest of the bracket is on the road some where and I didn't go back to try to find it. Yes I was lucky, I could have lost a radiator.
email me at danuser88@ktis.net I have an original neck and new fan blades, and gasket available, how bad is the bottom pulley?
Never even noticed the water pump.
If you had both pieces you could weld or braze it or have someone else do that for you.
There are several 1926-'27 fan blade assemblies and new style neck assemblies currently for sale on ebay. Enter "Model T fan" in the search box and they will both come up. Jim Patrick
You got one of the original Ford Recall Parts. The dealers were instructed to replace these original drive Fan Mounts that were only used for a short period in early 26. They apparently broke easily when over tightened. Me, I would replace it with the newer replacement it's safer that way. I know it's nice to have but I would change it.
I think that Texas T Parts sells a complete reproduction 26/27 outlet.
I got the brass neck from Langs. I had to make a spacer to move the fan out so it wouldn't hit the distributor. I'll post pictures this week end.
I got the neck and fan blades in time to get them on and go to the show yesterday. Had a great time. I discovered that you can put the fan blades on backwards. When you do, the blades sit closer to the engine and when I rolled them by hand to check for clearance, they were scraping the latch on the distributor. Reversed them and all is well. Below see the pictures of where the fan tried to come through the hood on the driver's side. It left a good dent on the hood shelf too. It just missed cutting the headlight wires. The broken blade came to rest on top of the engine and shorted out the back two plugs.
Chester, very lucky you or the radiator were not punctured. Your fix looks terrific. Nice to get her running in time to go do a fun outing.