Keith_J was back again today and we got most of the hard stuff back together. We can't put everything back until the fan gets here and that won't be until tomorrow afternoon. What was accomplished was getting the lower radiator hose, lower fan shroud, new fan clutch, and AC condenser back in. What's left is the fan, upper shroud, hooking up all the coolant lines, trimming to length the fan clutch air hose, putting the front left wheel back on, reinstalling the lower guard/apron on front of the truck, reinstalling the axle shafts, filling the coolant, and topping off the rear end. It seems like a lot but is really the easiest part to do.
The only part I couldn't get a replacement for was the fan clutch air line but Keith was actually able to fab one up with mostly parts in my shop. We did have to hit NAPA for 1 fitting and a length of hose but everything else was on hand. We didn't have an exact measurement since a portion of the hose was missing so just got one that had some extra length and once the fan shroud is back in place we'll trim it to length.
Comparing the old fan clutch to the new one it appears that the only real difference is the new clutch has integrated bolts that the fan slides on to while the old one you used a spacer, a non-metallic grommet, and a retaining plate that was all bolted to the clutch. Keith doesn't think the clutch was the issue in this loss but that the aluminum center of the fan gave out. Two of the fan mounting bolts were broken where they screwed into the clutch and the other 4 were all threaded all the way into the retaining plate and stripped the threads out of the clutch. Could this be a factor in why they went to a different style? Who knows.
The other issue I wanted to address was the clearance between the clutch and the AC pulley. I don't know if that issue was just with the old style clutch but since there wasn't much contact evident I thought maybe just shaving down the raised portion on the head of the bolts on the back of the clutch might work. I went ahead and used a file to smooth that down but it was probably only 1/64th of an inch or less. Once I mounted the clutch and torqued the mounting bolts down I've got almost 1/4" of space. There doesn't appear to be any difference in the old and new clutch thickness but I didn't take a set of calipers to them. Any way I don't think I'll have any rubbing issues there now.