How to Remove Fan Clutch Without Tool: Easy Trick to Remove!

Sometimes when you want to change your water pump or make extra room, you need to take the fan out, but the pulley keeps rotating along with the fan bolt. Taking it out directly is not possible. Usually, people remove fan clutches with various types of tools.

But if you did not have such tools, then would that make it impossible to remove fan clutches? Of course not.

There are still other ways for people to handle removing fan clutches without having to own other tools for support. And right now, we are going to explain a few methods on how to remove fan clutch without tool. 

How to Remove Fan Clutch without Tool: 2 Simple Methods

Tools like the fan clutch tool, Chevy pulley holding tool, etc. are used by professionals, and they are advised to people who want to take their fan clutch out of their water pump. 

But some people have created their own DIY tools to replace those types of tools and still managed to get their fan clutches out.

There were definitely some failures among those experiments, but right now, we will only talk about the successful ways you can remove a fan clutch without the need for any sort of expensive tool.

Method 1: Tape

This may sound like the cheapest way to handle removing fan clutches. But it works just fine, so it shouldn’t be a big deal even if it is cheap or sounds silly. The type of tape you need to use for this method to work is duct tape.

Before you use the duct tape, you first need to take off the serpentine belt. You can do this by using a wrench to twist the tensioner pulley upwards and in counterclockwise movements. After you’ve done this, you can now attach the bottom of the tie-down strap to the pully with the duct tape.

Take out the accessory belt while you’re refurbishing the water pump’s cooling system. After that, you need to relieve the tension and unwrap the accessory belt from the other pulleys. 

But make sure this belt is still wrapped around the water pump pulley since it is the one that rotates along with the fan clutch.

Keeping it wrapped makes sure the pulley stops its rotation. Now you can just use a torque wrench and undo the bolt and get your fan clutch out.

The accessory belt is meant to grip on pulleys without slipping. Instead of using rubber grips to hold the pulley while you use your torque wrench to torque, the accessory belt helps better with gripping.

Method 2: Prying Device

You need to wrap the pulley with a strap and grab the serpentine belt on both sides. Now you need a tire iron or long pry bar. If you do not have those, you can just use a piece of wood that is about 2 x 2 inches long. 

After you get what you need, you need to now decide which side of the belt you want to put your prying device on. Your decision will depend on the direction the nut will turn so you can remove the fan clutch.

After you chose the side, put the prying device against the belt and turn your torque wrench. 

This will make the belt tighten up on the bottom of the prying device and wrap around the belt to make it grip on the pulley. The pulley is now secure and firm and will not turn whether you are loosening or tightening the nit.

Final Words

If you want to avoid having to buy expensive tools or having to wait till your order of that tool delivers, then making your own DIY tool with your own tools that are lying around in your shed is good enough.

Using super-thin wrenches is the most common go-to tool that you can modify to be used in assisting you with removing fan clutches. You can then easily fit it between the pulley’s bolts and torque it counterclockwise.

There are some methods that come with risks, but the above methods have proven to help without causing any damage to the fan clutch or any other part inside the water pump.