could have been worse

[Mike in Mass]

I hop'd into my 39 truck yesterday with my wife for a drive up to the hospital to see her sister . "I Got a bad feeling about this " she says . Ya sisters gonna bee fine ! ,,,,, thats not what she meant. Might be the 5 times she flat towed me home last season that has her a little leary. OK ,On the highway cruising at 50,,I get a loud banging ,scraping,,WTF. Still had motor power ,just somthing scaping.made it off the exit, pulled into a parking lot .The main bolt that holds the fan/generater had snapped and was laying against the back of the fan hub .No damage to anything .lucky lucky lucky. My brother thinks it was the belts and maybe the pullies not being perfectly aligned. Anybody ever have somthing like this break on there ol flathead ,seems crazy to.me

[fortyonerag]

Not my flattie, but I had a fan come apart on an old 52 stovebolt chev once. One blade embedded itself in the radiator, one blade went through the upper radiator hose on its way to leaving an interesting dent in the hood.

It got my full attention at the time I can tell you!

[fordwife]

Maybe it was overtightened, but my guess is that 70 plus year old bolt just got old and cyrstalized.

[51 MERC-CT]

Buy the looks of the stud, it has been cranked on with a pipe wrench or something else at one time or another.

[Mike in Mass]

Im hoping I can get everthing out of the way and weld a nut on the broken bolt- end and back it out. course its probably just as easy to take the intake off and fix or replace . I have plenty of intakes and bolts. I admit, the bolt does look suspect. Im going to wait till the rain stops to take it apart.

[51504bat]

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I should have one you can have. PM me if you want it.

[Ol' Ron]

Good greaf, what doz the rest of the engine look like??

[JSeery]

Yep, the bolt looks like it has been under water!

[revkev6]

Originally Posted by JSeery

Yep, the bolt looks like it has been under water!

well, he does live in plymouth... you know, "plymouth rock", pilgrams, the atlantic ocean

[Mike in Mass]

I cant get pics to load of my motor unless I zoom in ,sorry. Its been running great . ,,,,until it wasnt,,,,

[40cpe]

Originally Posted by Mike in Mass

"I Got a bad feeling about this " she says . Ya sisters gonna bee fine ! ,,,,, thats not what she meant. Might be the 5 times she flat towed me home last season that has her a little leary.

I can tell you from experience that most women don't like being broken down, or out of gas, on the side of the road.

[George/Maine]

That same bolt snapped on Vic Fl few years ago

[RalphM]

I had one half of the belt sheave completely break off of the hub once. Luckily it didn’t go anywhere, and no harm was done.

[fordwife]

If it were me, I would pull the manifold rather than take a chance on welding in your engine compartment.

[russcc]

Good analysis by Fordwife & 51 Merc. The stud, (not bolt), has been tweaked with something like a pipe wrench maybe because it was stuck in the manifold, and would not come out. That could have caused the stud to crack or crystallize. You were lucky. Ray Helgers explained to me that the lower you keep the generator on the stud, the less stress it puts on the stud and the manifold where they frequently break off. The longer the fan belt, the higher the generator, the more stress. You see a ton of those early aluminum manifolds with a broken front section where the stud mounts.

[Mike in Mass]

Thanks Guys for the insight and comments .I will switchout the intake .I have a nice replacement . This is the 239 Merc motor from 42.It was in my truck when I got it .Would it have bigger belts ? there not duel pullies but they do seam wide

[Karl]

Mine was worse. Threw a fan blade and the resulting imbalance broke the inlet manifold and drove the remains of the fan through the radiator -Not pretty or cheap to fix !

[Bored&Stroked]

You are a fortunate man! I'm sure if this happened to me, it would cost me a couple hundred for a new 32 fan, maybe a new magneto and surely a new radiator! I can easily see a couple thousand $$$ - and that is probably optimistic! LOL

[Bored&Stroked]

Originally Posted by Karl

Mine was worse. Threw a fan blade and the resulting imbalance broke the inlet manifold and drove the remains of the fan through the radiator -Not pretty or cheap to fix !

Now that sucks big time!

[FlatheadTed]

Often we don't know the history of that stud and who wrenched on it ,so fit a bracket to the end down to the manifold Ted