Engine Fan Mount Bracket Cracked

[yuppie_rednk]

Passing along an issue that I discovered on my 1999 Alpine. The RV inspector missed this problem when I purchased the RV this past February.

While changing the engine oil a few months ago I discovered that one of the top arms of the engine fan bracket was cracked clean through. There are four arms to the bracket. After further investigation I realized that three of the four brackets were completely cracked. The only thing holding the fan and fan motor in place was one of the four fan bracket arms. After deciding it is not worth the risk of the only arm breaking off and the fan flying through the radiator and not being able to find a welder to weld the fan mount bracket in the chassis, I ended up just welding each broken arm myself. I'm no metal fabricator, but after spending a few hours practicing with my little MIG welder my crude high school welding skills came back to me.

It appears that the fan mount bracket is made from multiple pieces of metal and are stamped together and spot welded. It definitely does not look strong enough to last the lifetime of the RV. Here is a picture of one of the bracket arms I'm referring to.

[Skip426]

Good catch .
Unfortunately, you'll probably find more , stuff , that's not as good as it should be. You might want to consider an over lay, of about 3" with the current weld centered, under the overlay.
I'll , pass this along.
I'm the third owner of my coach. When I had it in for a service the engine controller had 35 codes for turbo over boost, that the shop couldn't really explain, because the check engine light wasn't on.
A month later , changing the oil filter I spotted the problem , the waste gate control hose fitting was broken off the turbo. Removing the broken fitting required turbo removal, waste gate had never opened since new, no carbon in the waste gate by-pass passage, and reveled two holes in the hose as well.
From assembly line damage when the engine was lower into the frame!
3 owners , 52,000 miles, records of multiple trips to service facilities, and I'm the one who found the problem on a ( at that time ) 12 year old unit.

[Alpine Dave]

I discovered a cracked weld on my fan bracket as well when I removed the fan motor to get it rebuilt. I reinforced all the welds and repainted the bracket before I reinstalled the fan motor. Other Alpine owners with older models might want to check their fan brackets as well. It appears that this may be a common problem.