Yesterday, driving along in my 87 244, my mechanical cooling fan simply fell out of my car going about 40 mph...

I was convinced that something in the road had jumped up and chopped it off (maybe a little dwarf gladiator???), but when I returned to pick it up, I couldn't see anything.

This was after I had realized that I was driving pretty recklessly on some gravel roads, and that I had left my timing belt cover off. I was thinking how terrible it would be to have a small rock lodge itself right in there with my crankshaft sprocket, then this happened.

The 87 is new to me, and I had left all kinds of plastic covers off after the initial inspection, and had not yet installed my splash pan, thinking that I was going to get to do a lot of work done(engine seals, crankshaft pulley, timing belt, etc.) a lot sooner.

I'm thinking now that the nuts holding the fan onto the water pump may have simply gotten loose over the last month or two of driving, but still, is driving without the fan shroud, splash pan, and timing belt generally unacceptable?

It's good that I had saved an extra fan, clutch, and water pump pulley from my parted '85, otherwise I'd be up poop creek, if you know what I mean. My wife thinks all the stuff in the garage is just junk laying around...