moved down here to florida and the heat. realized the truck a/c didnt cut it so i took it in to get it serviced. the guy at the desk told me that the tech said the fan clutch needs to be replaced. he said that it is real common on the F150's to fail. i drove out of the repair shop and the air is colder than it ever has been until i stop. guess he is right about the clutch. i read this forum all the time and have not seen any thing about these clutches. did the search and nothing really comes up. he wanted 200.00 to change. looked on line and napa and autozone have them for 60 bucks. cant take but a half hour to do.

 

got the clutch at napa 65 bucks with tax and less than a half hour. was able to do it with the radiator shroud still installed. i could hold the clutch and easily turn the shaft on the one that came. the new one took a good bit of torque to turn. started the truck and much different sound from under the hood. air conditioning was 20 degrees cooler coming out of the vents at idle in park than before. would have liked to put on the electric fans but finances prevented that.

 

Fan clutches are wear item. People don't realize they start going bad because it's sort of a progressive issue. But when you start experiencing diminished cooling at idle or see temperatures climb while sitting in traffic, it's a good place to start.

 

never saw the eng temp climb but i now see a big difference in airconditioning.

 

my uncle put a Napa fan on a '97 a few years back. It was loud as heck. I seemed like it was turning full speed even after it was just started without ever slowing down. He took it back and got another, same thing, i think he that one on.

Last week on an '89 F 350 7.3L we couldn't get the blower to blow much air. We figured it was the blower motor going bad. We took it out and turned it on and it ran as fast as it should. I reached in to the evaporator core and it was plugged almost solid with dirt. I ended up taking it all apart and blowing out what I could with air, then I washed it out with the hose, and then some soapy water and let it soak a while. After letting it all dry and putting it back together it would blow your hat off.

 

years ago i had a house with forced hot air. air flow was real bad. the fan was the standard hamster wheel type. when i pulled it out the cups in the fan that push the air were filled with dirt and gunk. there is no way the previous owners had a filter in there. took it all apart and soaked it in a strong mix of spray nine and water. put it back together and it made a huge difference.

the sound from the fan under the hood is not excessively loud. its just that the old clutch was slipping so bad the fan was not moving near as fast as it should.

just figured i would post it since it might help someone else. my truck is an 05 with 63000 miles on it.

 

Did you check the temps before or are you just guessing at the 20deg drop?

 

i put a digital temp probe (not a infra red) but a real probe in the dash outlet and it was 20 degrees difference as compared to before change and after change in the driveway. then later in the day i took it for a ride with ac on, when i parked with it running the outside temp was 90 and the outlet was 58. yesterday same drive and park when i stopped there was no cooling, ended up rolling the window down. it was 90 yesterday alsoand the outlet temp was 87.

hope that helps.

 

temp should be way lower than that.

I've gone through 3 fan clutches already in less than a year. Needless to say, i'm installing electric fans as we speak

 

the ac in this truck has never been anything to get excited about. but then from what i read none of the 05s are. i have to measure the temp diff while moving. my point was that at idle parked before the new clutch it was no ac. after clutch it was 20 deg less parked.

are the clutches on these trucks like the sparkplugs. did ford have a better design idea? good thing is they are easy to change unlike the plugs.

i would have liked to have gone to e fans but the funds arent there.