i stripped one of the nuts holding the clutch fan. how would i go about removing it?

 

you can go to sears and get a striped nut/bolt removal kit.

 

how stripped? mac tools makes a special socket for nut's that have been stripped up to 70 % i think thats what they say, i have some.

 

is it in the car still?

 

yea the fan is still attached to the engine which is still inside the engine bay. i think i will just go to sears tomorrow and get the stripped bolt/nut remover.

 

WOW, with the fan still on that is going to be a HUGE pain in the ***. I wish you good luck man.

 

Its gonna be hard to take off while in the car because of the limited space.... When removing those bolts you shoud use a closed ended spanner. They only strip when you turn them the wrong way, or if you use an open ended wrench. The main problem with this is that the stripped bolt removal kits are usually sockets... and they wont fit in the little bit of space... You can and see if a flare nut wrench can grip it good enough (b/c they grip a good deal of the bolt.) Have fun and godspeed.

 

That nut should be on a small stud mounted in the water pump pulley hub. It seems like it would be easiest to screw the stud/nut assembly out using a pair of vise grips, and then buy a new stud.

 

tried working on the nut today and found out, unfortunately, that there is not enough space to use the extractor kit. I was wondering if i could just destroy the nut+stud altogether with a hacksaw or drill and just buy new ones as buttsjim suggested?

 

Yeah if you can fit a hacksaw in there, no problem with replacing the stud. You can probably find a suitable replacement at home depot racing

 

I don't have a car to look at right now, but as I recall, you ought to be able to get in there with a small pair of vise grips, grab the end of the stud, and turn it. That would be the easiest course of action, by far. "Needle-nose" vise grips would probably work well.

A close-quarters hack saw would probably also work, but I'd try to screw the stud out first.

Good luck!

 

Vice grips, man...

 

tried vise grips... didnt work.
so....

i used a hack saw to cut out most of the nut and stud. then i used a copper hammer mash where the pulley and fan meet, popping off whatever was left of the nut and the fan assembly all together.

 

I had this happen before and when I brought it to the 7 shop the guy was able to get it off with vise grips. It wasn't easy though
His prices are pretty good, but this time he charged me $40 parts and labor for replacing my fan because it was a pain in the ***.

 

Die grinder.

Done.

 

that didnt even work on the infiniti with the stripped/rusted nut lol. cant freaking change the oil because the undercover wont come off

 

I'm in the very same boat as calrx7. How the hell do they expect you to keep the pulley in place as you're turning the nut with a wrench?

I have two of the nuts taken off the fan and then the other two are stripped off. So I'm very much in the same boat. My method that I'm using to attempt a removal is using a dremel tool with a metal file bit on the end. Going to try to file it down to nothing.

The best of luck to both of us, if you have positive results, please PM with what you did.

 

as i stated, i cut down the stripped nut along with its stud with a hacksaw (die grinder would have probably worked faster) and filed them down so that almost nothing was left. then i got my hammer and hit where the fan base meets the pulley. the force from the hammer blows knocked whatever was left of the nut and off came the fan.

lesson learned: while using a 10mm wrench to take off the fan nuts, use a pipe wrench with your free hand on the pulley and apply the opposite force. (may scratch the pulley housing a bit, but oh well...)

 

I had the exact same problem as you. You can go to most parts stores ( I went to o'reilly's, others should be similar) and loan a fan assembly removal tool, or something like that. It has a bar with another bar attatched that you brace on two of the nuts to keep it from turning. I made the mistake of trying to do it myself and stripped the nut.
First, jack the car up, and have someone on top of the car hold the tool on very tightly. Due to the design, you can no longer get at the top nut properly, so you must get under the car to get at the bottom nut. This will require removing the plastic bottom rad panel. On the stripped nut, I took a pair of vise grip pliers and clamped it on the nut as hard as I possibly could. Bascially, make it tighter than you can get on, then slowly loosten it until you can just barely clamp it on with both hands. Make sure its in the right position to be around the thinest part so it wont further stip the nut. I then took a rubber mallet and banged the **** out of it until it came off. The vice grips flew off a few times, so be careful. If the vice grips don't work, its not on tight enough.
You will now need a new nut, but thats much better than putting a new stud in.

 

To keep the pully in place while loosening bolts, try a strap wrench.

In that area, I would just grind the heads of any damaged bolts with a die grinder. It will take about 10 minutes, but easier then the alternatives.