392 belt numbers & fitting issues

["Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>]

I will be most pleasantly surprised to find that anything can be squeezed between the fan and the radiator.  The gap between them is inordinately small.  So much so that one cannot buy an off the shelf fan clutch because they are too long, front to back, to fit.  I am discussing fractions of an inch difference.

 

I will be trying to fit them without removing the fan, of course.  I guess there is maybe a quarter inch gap.  I don't want to damage the new belt, the blades or the radiator and I fear that it will not be any easy fit.  Multiply this by four and loosening the fan and shroud starts to seem like the most prudent course of action.

 

I have never seen a fan so close to a radiator.  You'd think for all the size of the engine compartment, there would be loads of room to get access to everything but this is not the case.  In fact it is the complete opposite.  I wonder if the 59's 413 has easier access.  I hope so. 

 

The nickname for my era of Hemi is "The Whale,"  for obvious reasons.

 

Hugh

----- Original Message -----

From: Rog & Jan van Hoy

To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 2:21 AM

Subject: Re: IML: 392 belt numbers

----- Original Message ----- I have already advised my wife and child to be out of the house on Sunday when I try to fit them.  Removing the fan from this vintage of Imperial is a tricky business.  Replacing it without damaging the radiator is even trickier.

 

Why would you remove the fan?  This should not be necessary to replace belts.  The belts should slip over the fan blades.

 

--Roger van Hoy, '55 DeSoto, '58 DeSoto, '42 DeSoto, '66 Plymouth, '81 Imperial, Washougal, WA