<VV> Blower bearing oddity

[charles mckinley]

Today I broke a fan belt for the first time in about 20 years,
fortunately just as I was getting home from a grocery expedition. In the
replacement procedure, I discovered that the top of my blower blades
were rubbing against the edge of the turkey roaster cutout, indicating
that the blower bearing had migrated up enough to overtake the clearance
there. I'm a little bemused by this, as I had procured this particular
blower bearing from Clark's several years ago, installed by them in a
block cover, and I assumed that it would hold its position indefinitely.
Reverting to shade tree methods, I gave the bearing shaft a whack with a
large hammer and it dropped enough to clear the engine cover (maybe
1/8"). The engine was at full operating temp at the time, so it didn't
take much of a whack to move it. I'm curious whether this is anything
like normal behavior, or if there's something in the fan belt geometry
that I need to adjust to prevent a recurrence. I thought that the
press-fit nature of the blower bearing would prevent this sort of
circumstance. Words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Chuck McKinley
'63 Monza 900 80-hp 3-speed