A couple of "dumb" questions

[Joel T.]

Two questions regarding my 1963...

1) On the the fan clutch drive... How can I tell if it is operating properly? When I run the car, it spins, but keeps spinning when the engine is shut off.. never seeming to be directly driven.

2) Battery Cables - I bought a reproduction set from our friends in Michigan; a long brown one and a shorter black one. Which is which; positive and negative? I had them installed but had to switch them to (Brown = Negative), (Black = Positive) once I also installed a reproduction battery... they would not reach otherwise... Is this correct?

Thanks, Joel

[Jim W.]

Re: A couple of "dumb" questions

Joel--Believe me, there are no dumb quest.in this hobby. You are correct on quest #2 after you switched them. The orig. SPRING RING cables were black-Pos. with sleve at terminal, and brown-Neg. I think mine even has "NEG" embossed on top of terminal. Don"t forget the felt washer on the POS post for corrosion inhibitor

[William C.]

Re: A couple of "dumb" questions

If the engine is hot, and you shut it off, the fan should not "freewheel" if you lift the hood and turn it by hand with the engine cold, then again with the engine hot, you should feel noticably more resistance when hot. There are a number of threads on this in the archives, but if it is the original, 99.99% it will need rebuilt/replaced.