Viscous Hub Fan

[shortygq]

Is the viscous hub fan in the 3.2 turbo diesel serviceable. It is hard to tell by looking at it while in situ. It needs to be filled up with new silicon oil, I'm at Kununurra at the moment & most of the mechanics don't want to refill & are not sure if it is serviceable. I like to get fixed before tackling the Gibb River Rd. Have many people had success in refilling the hub ?

[Ohlins]

Try this....

http://www.pocuk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=126383&sid=6f627fbd2c2a8a8c331ae6642ba2c092

The UK site has a good few threads on this...

http://www.nichols.nu/tip482.htm

http://pages.prodigy.net/jforgione/MB_vfc.html

Hopefully you can service it and carry on without too much trouble

[wisey]

Hi Shorty,
I topped up the oil in mine successfully myself about 12 months ago and it is still going. Towing a caravan with no overheating. If you do it yourself the oil is about $60. If you are paying a mechanic to do the job it maybe better to replace it. All the information you need to do the job is on this great forum somewhere. I believe the Dayco replacement part No. is 115543. Check it out here.

http://www.dayco.com.au/PartInfo.aspx?G=1785&P=115543

Good luck.
Wisey

[shortygq]

Thanks for the info. I did mine on the GQ years ago which was not serviceable & it worked a treat using the Toyo silicon oil. It is hard to work out how much to put in, too much & it will lock up too early. The mechanic is using a silicon oil from Drive Cool which is the same stuff but a lot cheaper apparently. I will see if the mechanic can heat the hub & pour in oil to get in the right amount of oil, while spinning the hub during filling. It maybe too labour intensive & he might just fill it up & say "she'll be right mate". They seem very relaxed up here, there are 4 workshops & most have a 3 week waiting list. One workshop is waiting for their mechanic to return from walk about in the bush, he has been missing for 4 weeks.

[rebelone607]

Hi shortygq, yep brother inlaw had his done last year at Alice Springs and it did not take the bloke that long to do it. I watched him do it and now reckon I could do it myself, the hardest part would be actually removing it from the vehicle. To do this he removed the top half of the fan shroud which is held together with cable ties, he had a really long ring spanner with no offset which obviously made the job easier. Next he just layed the coupling on a flat surface and pulled it apart and just filled the one half with fluid, remember him saying the important thing is not to get air bubbles in it. Reckon we were in and out of there in 30 to 40 minutes, can't remember what it costs but was no more than $50 or $60. Can't remember name of business now but was radiator shop in Alice.
Metrv

[shortygq]

I removed the hub this morning & dropped it off at the mechanics. He has the oil in stock, should be ready this arvo. Then will be ready to hit the Gibb River Rd. The Durack River is 700mm high at the moment, fingers crossed should be o.k

[Ohlins]

If you get a chance,can you post pictures of the fan before it goes back in,outlining what's what and where what goes please? Also what size spanner you need to have to take it off?....I take it it's a normal spanner and not some kind of special tool?

[shortygq]

Attached is a photo of the hub. 12mm spanner is needed to remove fan. Once fan is removed, you can access all bolts to split the hub. My hub was very low in oil, filled up with silicon oil & reassembled. This method should fix 90% of viscous hubs but it did not fix mine. Now have to wait for new hub to be flown in from MMA in Perth.

[Ohlins]

Thanks for the pic. Good to see what's what...

[gaz1]

Now have to wait for new hub to be flown in from MMA in Perth.

Shorty I got an aftermarket hub for my V6 through Scott's Auto 1 in Leura - price was $184, quite a bit cheaper than MM from memory. Did you try them at Springwood?
Gaz

[shortygq]

I'm at Kununurra WA at the moment, I am going genuine for this as I heard the after market ones do not last as long.

[rebelone607]

Attached is a photo of the hub. 12mm spanner is needed to remove fan. Once fan is removed, you can access all bolts to split the hub. My hub was very low in oil, filled up with silicon oil & reassembled. This method should fix 90% of viscous hubs but it did not fix mine. Now have to wait for new hub to be flown in from MMA in Perth.

Was talking with the brother inlaw yesterday about his and he said that he was never happy with his after the re oil and he also has replaced with a new genuine one, so am now starting to wonder if it is worth doing them in the first place - looks like there could be a significant failure rate of re oiled hubs!
Merv

[shortygq]

One mechanic here warned me they are not worth re-oiling. I had success re-oiling the hub in the GQ & it worked a treat for the next 100,000km before selling it. So I thought it should work with the Paj.