B1700: How to remove fan shroud

[DaveD]

Kubota B1700HST, purchased new 1996: I need to thoroughly clean the radiator fins that jam up with grass clippings and dust. I regularly blow or hose out from the engine side what I can get to, but the fan shroud prevents me from getting to the bottom, mostly toward the corners. I have the "Net Radiator" (screen) in place, and that catches the big pieces, but the little stuff has gotten into the fins over the years and have clogged many of them. To get to the whole face of the radiator will require removing the fan shroud. The WSM doesn't cover that except for water pump service where it tells me to remove the fan and pulley, with no directions. I could try blasting them out from the front but much of that is covered by the HST fluid cooler.

It appears that if I first remove the exhaust down pipe next to the radiator shroud and then remove the four screws at the corners, perhaps I can move the shroud back over the fan and get to the fan bolts from close to the radiator, then remove the fan, and the shroud and fan might lift out together.

This needs to be fairly simple or I'm really not interested in doing it, since this service will fall in the area of preventative maintenance and the tractor is 25 years old and this hasn't caused a problem so far (yet?). I don't want to mess with removing the radiator itself because if something goes wrong here I am talking about a major expense. Thanks in advance.

 

[Russell King]

Your process sounds like what I did to get my fan off: unbolt shroud move shroud over fan, bend lock tabs off blower bolt heads, remove fan bolts and lock plates, remove fan and shroud vertically on mine.

There were 4 fan bolts, two lock plates, one plate for two bolts. Lock plate bends up onto bolt head so it won’t loosen.

 

[GeoHorn]

Buy one of those cheap ($5) blow-guns with long extension-tubes from HF. It will reach way down into the corners and you can avoid all that work.

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[DaveD]

Thank you to both Russell and Geo for your comments. I added a piece of annealed copper tubing with a little bend on the very end and a rubber tip to a blow gun, removed the alternator and belt to allow better access and to easily spin the fan, and got to more of the radiator than in the past. I finished it up with a water hose wash and believe I will let it go at that, but will remove the shroud for a complete cleaning if it tends to run hot in the future.