AC HD11

[kopite]

tctractors, I'm not a mechanic but do have a good memory from the good old days. The D8's that I operated in the 1970's had the fans turned to blow heat on the operator. Don't know how they did it but it sure felt good on cold days. As for D8K's the few I operated had cabs and heaters, luxury.

[hoggie]

I agree with Kopite on turning fan blades,while on the Jenpeg hydro dam in Manitoba, Canada in the early seventies we turned the fans on all caterpillars from days to nights and back, it took about 3 minutes but if you failed to turn one of the blades you soon heard it when you started the engine.

[tctractors]

hoggie, if you turned the fan in 3 mins even if it was the reversable blade style it would be in some record book somewhere? as for taking the complete fan off and fitting it in reverse, I would think at least 4 hours might be needed, if your fan was the spring locked blade reversable style on a D8H, just getting to pull the fan around to set the blades needs a lump of fan guard removing, if you look at service books on the blade rotating blow to suck info using the long tooling its some game to master, but 3 mins might get 1 blade rotated

[nick lamb]

I briefly had a reversed fan on a D8.The cab soon got hot and the windows caught any soot aand dust the fan chucked at them.No good so I swapped it when time allowed.
There is a debate wether a sucker fan is a blower or a blower fan is a sucker???.I reackon women of the short skirt,high heeled variety may have the answer. .I don't.

for the benefit of this debate I'll give more details on my 'blower/sucker' episode.
During the summer of 1992 the D8's were on a brutal blue whinstone cutting spending their days pushing D9 and D10 tractors up steep batters and generall pushing down to 245's etc.One of the many lumps to fall off during this job was the enevitable fan assembly.this gave more airflow through the radiator.much more .I fixed the radiator up and replaced the mangled fan with one that a fitter gave me from their workshop.Only once it was mobile did I realise that something was wrong with it.I ended up having to drive the machine myself due to the lack of enthusiam from it's driver after he spent a 14 hour shift on it!!.
It worked for about 4 months untill the Christmas holidays where upon I had time to remove the radiator and put a 'normal fan'on.At this time I took the the opertunity to replace the bolts with the next size up.It was a 68A 2000 series and had smaller mounting bolts.
As for it's performance.......It was horrible to drive and made the tractor look dirty.I never noticed the engine overheating though.My eyeballs were scorched though
when I changed the fan only then did I notice the difference between the 2 types.You certainly couldn't just 'turn them arround'.They were totally different.

[v64paul]

In my day you could have a reversible fan on a 125a / 100b drott....
It's o.k. i'll get me coat...

[modelman093]

Not sure whether this makes any sense or is helpful or not and it was a long time ago! I started work in Cat's sales and service dept attached to the Glasgow factory in the mid 60s and as part of the "get to know the products" programme one of my first assignments was to sit with the guy who drew up all the specifications and quotations to meet dealers' orders - these started with the base tractor, 22a/68a plus suitable blade and ripper etc + control gear and then extra guarding and tow hooks etc. I remember various fan options (including reversable) and recall that blower fans would be specified for machines destined for dusty climates so that abrasive material was not drawn through the radiator core effectively sand blasting the fins and tubes and leading to premature failure of the rad. Presumeably not often specified for UK machines!!

[tctractors]

The D8K is fitted with a different style of Vee belt tension using a spring loaded jockey wheel to the D8H that uses a bolt adjusted jockey wheel, the K fan is easier to pull round, But again I have never found a reversable fan that swapped from blow to suck easy? the blades where pigs to shift, no doubt if they are turned on a day or regular point this would make the task easier, the reversable fan cost something over £2'000 new, I can recall seeing an advert in the "Re-Sale Weekly" years ago offering a reward for a stolen reversable fan assembly, the last D8K that I worked on with a swing blade fan had a fan guard with a step shape and small removable section to aid rotation, if they are not turned on a regular point they lock up with dust and crap and have to be stripped out and repaired, they where crap fans anyhow the fixed blade item was trouble free, the K engine runs hot enough in the U.K. never mind sucking heat all over the block and under the hood??

[JimInOz]

I operated a new Case 855D Loader in '85.It was fitted with spring-loaded ,reversible fan blades.I never used them,but I wondered if the engine cooling would be affected.
I found the Case 4in1 buckets to be operator friendly,& the rippers were OK too.Never really warmed to the steering,though. There were some contractors here that would only buy Case crawlers coz of the steering.
Sorry...I digress....