Andy Roe

Hi guys,

Clearly I should not have touched the car this morning!

I decided it was time to replace the belts and I managed to shear one of the fan belt hub/pulley bolts.

So, I assume that I now have to remove the whole alternator/fan assembly to replace the hub. Double

Is it worth upgrading to the RS hub or should I keep it stock? Are there any downsides of the RS hub? (lower alternator speed etc?)

Will I need a puller to remove the fan? Will it do any harm running without one of the bolts in the mean time?

Thanks,

Andy

jimq

Thats not abnormal to shear the bolts. When I did it i cut a slot in the part sticking out with a dremel and it came right out with a screw driver after the tension from the other bolts was gone. It depends on how long the fan has been on if it is requires a puller. I bought a cheap set and pulled mine right off.

Vandit

Yea, should be no big deal as long as you can get the broken bolt/stud out of the hub. My car has stud/nut setup but i've seen some that have socket head bolts instead.

Did it shear off below the level of the fan?

Andy Roe

Hi guys - My setup has 2 stud/nuts and 1 bolt. Yes, it's sheared off below the level of the fan, so I think I'll need to remove the fan to be able to get to it. As long as I can get the stud out, I think I'll replace it with a new M6 bolt.

Is it possible to remove the fan without taking the alternator out of the car? (I guess that depends on whether you need to use pullers or not). The fan certainly hasn't been off in the last 10 years, so I doubt it will.

I assume in the mean time, I shouldn't use the car? (I'll try to fix it next weekend).

Thanks!

Andy Roe

I've just looked at the bit of the stud that broke off and it's 18mm long. Hopefully I'll be able to extract the rest of it OK!

ThomasC2

I needed a puller, but just a small one and not much force before it popped off.

Thomas

elbeee964

If it's the three fasteners I'm thinking of, it appears someone previously conducted imaginative work on your fan assembly. Here's how those three bolts should appear, below. Likely that previous someone busted off two of the three cap screws -- and as they're reduced-height heads AND not so easy to commonly find -- made due with threaded rod and nuts. It appears to have worked so far but not something I'd advise as ongoing repair. (Replace with OE fasteners, or equivalent.)
Below are pictures I took removing such during an RS hub install. [Link]
I guess you could remove the alternator w/o touching the fan belt... (Though I wouldn't be surprised if someone comments that doing so is like changing tires by removing the car.)
Hang in there!

Andy Roe

Hi Lonnie,

Great write up Lonnie - that'll be a great help!

Yep, it's those 3 bolts, although none of mine are like yours!! I think I'll replace them all whilst I'm at it! - good point about the reduced head of the bolts though.

The PET actually has both the bolts and the nut/stud, so it's possible they did it both ways at the factory and realised it was a weak point and changed to the setup like you have.

Andy

boxsey911

Andy, mine are all studs (early car). My guess is that your one bolt is due to a previous broken stud.

Romanoaf

I just sheared one aswell, mine also had one bolt and 2 studs, although I'm assuming its because one was already sheared in the past. I put it back together with 2 bolts for now and drove it around for the weekend before I pull the alternator tonight to properly extract it.