My truck gets hot sometimes while idling in traffic until I start moving again.

Most likely it's my fan clutch, so gotta change it.

I know it's fairly easy, but now a notice that I need a couple of freaking "special" tools to remove it; the wrench and holding tool, or whatever they're called.

Anybody ever done this before? Do I need to buy these things? Or does Autozone have them?

Thanks for any help...

 

you can rent the tools from autozone or you could use a big wrench to fit the nut and use a pipe wrench to hold it.

 

Thanks Matt. On the Autozone site, it says they have the wrench thing, but it says for 88-91 f150's or something.

But all the 4.9's are the same, right? It should work I'm guessing.

Also, on the part page, there are 2 fan clutches that match my truck. a 36mm one and a 40mm one...

Will they both fit? How am I supposed to know which one? All the parts sites have the 36mm and the 40mm. That's the size of the hex nut.

 

i would ask to do the clutch in their parking lot. that way once you get it off you can walk inside and check to see which fan clutch it is. unless you have a way to measure the nut.

 

if your `96 has a serpentine belt setup, the trick I use is a large crescent wrench on the nut on the waterpump, use a breaker bar on the belt tensioner to apply tension to the belt, then hit the crescent wrench with a 5lb sledge to break the nut loose, then you can spin the fan off.

I apply tension with the breaker bar to the tensioner so the waterpump doesn't just spin and the belt holds it in place.

 

According to the manual, you don't need the special tool to actually get it out of the truck, just once you get the fan out to detach the clutch.

The whole thing is just held into the engine with 4 bolts. So I guess you could just do it in the parking lot.

I still don't get the 2 different sizes though.

 

the fan bolts onto the clutch. the clutch goes onto the water pump.
i looked at the water pump for your truck and it uses the bolt on fan clutch. just 1 tool to hold still and then a wrench to take all 4 bolts off. the fan clutch that napa and advance show for it show the style with just 1 big nut. just look at it and see if it has 4 bolts or 1 big nut.