i'm confused as to what the definition of "resistance" is. Does it mean that the fan should come to a stop shortly after flicking or turning one of the blades, wheel-of-fortune style (like spinning the fan)? or does it mean that you should not really be able to turn the fan much at all, like if you kept your finger on one of the blades and pushed it all the way around 360 degrees. The latter being a case where, if you could push the fan around with your finger on one of the blades with ease, you would have a bad fan clutch...?

In other words, when i spin the fan (by "flicking" it), it makes about a quarter turn and comes to a rest. when i keep my finger on the blade and push it around, it turns pretty easily? is this normal?

the car overheats when sitting in traffic. turning the heat on full blast usually lowers the temp. no overheating on the interstate or normal driving speeds. I idled the car today for about 15 minutes and felt the hose periodically, it started off hot but not too hot to touch, by the end of the 15 minutes it was pretty much too hot to touch. Interestingly, the temp stayed right at about 9:00 (dead normal)for almost the entire 15 minutes, but towards the end it creeped back down to more like 8:00. the fan was turning the entire time. Ive read threads where people refer to a "whoosh" noise when the fan turns on, i didn't notice any big whoosh noise at any point although i did notice the fan ran a little faster with a bit more of a hum after about 5 minutes. Any advice or insight? thanks for keeping my baby running at 220k, i love this board, thanks to spook for the help yesterday...

The amount of resistance you refer to sounds about right. I've never seen one lock up to the point where you could not push it around by hand.

"In other words, when i spin the fan (by "flicking" it), it makes about a quarter turn and comes to a rest. when i keep my finger on the blade and push it around, it turns pretty easily? is this normal?"
Yes, that is pretty much normal.

What I do to check the function of a fan clutch is to block the air flow in front of the radiator, install a thermo couple wire under the upper hose so I can monitor engine temp with my Fluke meter, and then block the throttle open with a ball point pen at about 2500 RPM. When it reaches around 210 or so the fan clutch should be fully engaged and you will notice this by the roaring noise as it hooks up and starts moving air. Pull the card board from the front of the radiator and see how fast it pulls the engine temp back down.

From your description of your problem you may have a faulty fan clutch but it could just as easily be a clogged radiator. Either way I would stuff a new thermostat in it when I did either repair, it is cheap insurance.

Mark