doghouse fan rubbing,verses mouse nest

[oldmanmark]

Hello, discovered mouse nest in a long stored doghouse 1600. Nest was between push rod tubes and cylinders. Cleaned it out, for peace of mind bought 2 black rubber plugs and firmly tapped them into the shroud air ducts to stop further entry. The engine been stored on a pallet and cover but hey they are mice. From the front of engine noticed the fan was not centered in the doghouse air opening. Gave the crank a spin, scraping. Read the Bentley, loosen everything up ownly (not partial removal), includeing alternator strap. What a pain, finally got scrapeing to stop. Fan was still off center. Pretty sure tapping the 2 stoppers in shifted the doghouse. ?, does the fan have to be dead centered in the shroud intake hole , or can it be off center a bit and still cool effectively ? Its about 3 millemeters off to the side. Surpriseing how little clearance was to stop scraping. The fan is not bent.

[williamM]

its more about loosing cooling air that wonderful alignment-- but I would look carefully with a flashlight where the bolts on each end of the doghouse slides into the cylinder tins- and would bet one is hanging up on the cylinder tins. as that should sit nice and level. so check the fit- does the shroud follow the cylinder tins front and back or is there a gap any where?

side note- your about 20 min labor from pulling all the tin- if a mouse found the push rods a good home -- it's because his cousin took over the top of the cylinders.
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[kreemoweet]

Rubber caps on shroud outlets is useless for keeping out mice - there are many other openings. Fan shroud fit on the engine has
nothing to do with fan centering or not, it's how the fan sits on the gen. shaft only that will determine that. If the fan spins true
with no detectable runout, then it's OK. Fan rubbing is prevented by having the correct shims on the fan hub, not by messing
with the fan shroud.
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[jason]

Take it all off and check for mice nest. They can climb right in the fan, big holes there.

[oldmanmark]

Eyeballed the the bolts good for level, fit etc. Shroud was hanging up on cylinder tin, but jumped back in. Used the previous bolt marks on shroud for reference. I believe the alternator with fan attached can be removed without complete shroud removal. Hey kreemoweet, thought the shims were for belt tension. Not doubting you, never realized alignment too. So dead center alignment not big concern . Looked today and williamM, the side to side alignment is ok, its the front to rear tilt thats uneven. Back to square one. Hamster on treadmill, mouse on fan, me and a VW.

[KTPhil]

Shims between the pulley halves are for belt tension. There are other shims on the armature for spacing the fan. You can also slightly loosen the band clamp and shove the combo gen/fan forward or back to get a little adjustment relative to the shroud.

[oldmanmark]

got it, good help, thanks.

[williamM]

sounds like it's coming together--- one idea I read here - is to replace the gen stand studs with bolts and secure the fan with3 bolts instead of 4-

Their thinking was - to be able to remove the gen/fan combo without having to mess with the fan housing- it makes sense with a bus but with a beetle I'm not sure its worth it.
_________________
some days I get up and just sit and think. Some days I just sit.

opinion untempered by fact is ignorance.

Don't step in any!

[damicotile]

[yamaducci]

My first running Bug I had stored for a while was on it's first trip home It overheated and blew up. Mouse nest of headliner insulation all pack on top of the cylinders. Definitely worth an inspection and cleaning. You can also get that fan properly centered for efficient cooling.
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