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April, 2007

2100 Walnut Street

Kansas City, MO 64108

Local Chapter of MAFCA and MARC

NEWS

‘A’

LETTER

Heart of America Model A Ford Club

“

Certificate of M erit” 2006

“

A ward of

Continuing Excellence” 2005

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

Following any kind of disaster, you’ll generally find people milling about with blank looks on their

faces. Their expression gives testimony to the universal thought, “I never thought this could ever

happen to me!” My face had that same blank stair when three weeks ago disaster struck my Model

The weather was beginning to warm and I knew the time was nearing when I’d get my car out of

the garage and fire it up for the first time in several months. It started right off without any coaxing.

In no time, the engine was warmed up to operational temperature. I stood outside the driver’s side

door listening to the steady beat of the engine and day dreaming about some of our up and coming

tours. My granddaughter was standing in the front seat taking it all in. I reached inside to show her

some of the controls. Somehow my arm pumped the throttle control to wide open. The engine

roared for a few moments and then there was a horrific explosion kind of a sound. My son immedi-

ately shut the engine down and I lifted the hood. It didn’t take long to see the trouble. The fan blade

had blown apart with such a violent force that it broke the entire water pump off the car. The only

thing remaining of the pump was the back section where it attaches to the block by four bolts.

Naturally, the radiator is a total loss. There are several deep impact points going right through the

radiator. The hood also received a good impact from flying debris. Some body work will be in order

to set this right.

The really sad thing about this story is it could have been totally avoided. Some years ago, Bob

Hess put a turn indicator system in my car. On every car he works on, he checks out the fan to see if

it is an original two-blade fan. These fans are structurally weak and are notorious for causing the

same problem I experienced. I’m told there are several solutions. Two-blade aluminum fan are

popular and look like the originals. Some folks switch to a four-blade fan. There are plastic fans

with several blades. These don’t look original, but they do improve cooling.

The moral to the story is checking your fan. If you have an original two-blade fan, replace it imme-

diately and save yourself a lot of grief and down time, not to mention expensive repairs.

Chris Launer