Hey Guys (and Gals).

1990 240 150K Miles

Regarding my fan, and as mentioned here, I've never heard the change in noise from the engine compartment when the fan gets locked or unlocked from the crankshaft via the clutch. I think someone mentioned it as ".....a big whooshing sound."
So I took mine off. It "spins freely" at room temperature. It has some resistance. About the same as turning a jacked up tire. The temperature sensitive metal, used to lock/unlock the clutch is clearly visable and external to the bulk of the component. For that reason, I only kept it in the oven(130 deg. F) for 10 min. After removal, the blades resistance to turn, relative to the disk that bolts to the cranksaft, had not changed(should have increased).
I put everything back on the car. I could have sworn, I got a small gain in "peppyness", if that's a word, when the fan,clutch,and shroud were off. Could that be? We're talking some pretty low rotary inertia!
I'm not going the electrical fan route unless somebody can show me the "dummy's gude to wiring a automated elect. fan system". It's winter now, but I'd look into a system that doesn't require me to always look at the temp gauge and then, if necessary, flip switches. I had the mechanical fan off for a month, and my gauge got to the edge of red about 10 times in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Full heat and blower motor speed 4 eventually (1 to 2 minutes) brought the coolant temp down. Other times I pulled over, shut off engine and raised hood.

Is my clutch not working?

TIA and everybody have a good weekend
-Matt