Retrofitting a '77 fan clutch to a '76

[cbmontgo]

I'm posting this thread for a buddy and have been helping him with this since I have both a '77 and a '76 and can compare the two side by side. It appears that 1977 was the first year of the fan clutch on the 2F, and he wants to install a fan clutch on his '76.

Looking under the hood, it looks like the water pump, pulley, and the fan will need to be swapped at a minimum. The later water pump is shorter to accommodate the fan clutch, and the pulley is also narrower on the later one. I also see that the fan shroud on my '77 is slightly narrower than on the '76, but that probably doesn't matter as much.

Any other thoughts/recommendations/tips?

 

[charliemeyer007]

Sounds like you have it covered. Dremel tool with cutting disks work nice for trimming sheet metal in place if needed.

Not a fan of extra parts, more stuff to go wrong IMHO. But I am a bi fan of make it yours.

 

[Brian/99uzj100]

Owning a 2/76 40 myself, I've pondered this swap for years. I'm interested to see if there will be a noticeable improvement in gas mileage and/or highway power. Thanks for sharing!

 

[cruisermatt]

Right now the OEM water pump is still available for fixed fan 2F but not fan clutch. So that is something to consider. Otherwise your parts list is correct.

 

[Pighead]

Isn't the only difference between a fixed and clutch driven fan the flange on the waterpump shaft? Can you buy the pump you want and swap the flange to what you need? It seems whenever I buy a waterpump for my '76 block it always comes with a clutched fan flange, I just swap to the fixed drive flange