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Old 06-05-2019, 12:25 PM   #1
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CAT Pusher - Transverse Fan Belt Replacement

So I'm trying to replace the fan belt on my 2001 Thomas Saf T Liner MVP-ER with a CAT 3126 and I can't figure out how to get the fan belt off.

I got as far as this picture. Any advice welcome. I thought the belt could go forward over the blades and then just slide out, but the fan connects in the front to a hose that goes into the clutch. There is no easy way to access anything on the side that goes into the radiator cavity.
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Old 06-05-2019, 01:02 PM   #2
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Ok, I found this. At least I know how it is supposed to work now. That hose is apparently an air hose. Hard to know how to disconnect it when you can't see it.
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Old 06-05-2019, 02:19 PM   #3
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is it a horton fan?

http://catalog.hortonww.com/training...anual23000.pdf
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Old 06-05-2019, 03:41 PM   #4
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I think it is that type of system. Got the air line and the belt off.

Napa ordered the belt for me $80.
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Old 06-05-2019, 07:23 PM   #5
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Got new belt ordered. Turned out it was a good thing I dug into all of this. The belt had some cracking in it but it was working fine. Once I took it off I realized that the main adjustment on the fan was off and it was allowing slop in the actual placement of the fan with in the shroud.

I could grab the whole assembly with my hand and move it back-and-forth more than an inch side to side. The main adjusting bolt is supposed to be torqued to 220 foot pounds and now I understand why.

There’s a lot of vibration in the system and that main bolted just backed out some. I got it adjusted and tightened down now with my impact wrench. Another one of the main fasteners in the assembly was loose as well so it was probably up little bit of a grenade waiting to go off. Glad I looked into it before it got any worse.

I also discovered that the solenoid that actuates air pressure to the fan clutch had a bad terminal on it. It felt floppy to me and when I poked at it a little bit more I realized that it was only heat shrink that was holding the wire onto the terminal still.

The system is apparently designed to fail in the on position so if anything goes wrong the fan runs versus not running, I think it’s pretty likely that this connection was making intermittent contact which meant that the fan sometimes would cycle off but often stayed on longer than it was supposed to. I can actually feel the change in horsepower when the fan comes on so it’s likely I may get a little bit better gas mileage now.

I re-terminated the wire and soldered the terminal on.
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Old 06-06-2019, 03:27 PM   #6
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Napa got the wrong belt in. Hopefully better luck tomorrow.
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Old 06-07-2019, 01:18 PM   #7
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All done. If anyone has my same setup the belt you are looking for is an NBH 2/B86.
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Old 06-07-2019, 01:26 PM   #8
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While I was at it I noticed that the body mount I. The extreme rear corners above the rear bumper were doing nothing. There was slop and everything was shaking to its own rhythm.

I decided to pull the bolts. One side came easy, I had to cut the other one out after the impact gun and breaker bar didn’t work.

Once it was out I couldn’t believe how stretched it was!

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Look at the neck in the middle. Definitely not from the factory that way.

Replaced the hardware with new grade 8 stuff and adjusted the rubber shim packs (not pictured).

All back together now and nothing shaking around at all!

This is a pretty easy fix if you already have the lower access panel removed.

Area covered by the panel circled.

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Old 02-15-2020, 03:42 PM   #9
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How did you disconnect the airline?
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Old 02-15-2020, 07:49 PM   #10
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I don’t remember what size it is, but I think I just used a combination wrench or a flare but wrench. It’s just a hex fitting. Make sure you are pushing the right direction and push hard! Either end can come off. I think I ended up disconnecting both ends.
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