[AT] repairing radiators

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Within the last year I remember we touched on the subject of repairing or replacing radiators. I’m of the opinion if the radiator is pretty old on a high hour machine, you should consider a replacement. Well now I’m faced with a slightly different problem. We’ve got a split in the top tank on the radiator on a 454 IH utility tractor. This machine is 42 years old and still logs more hours than all the rest here combined. So I decided to price a new radiator. I’ve checked all over the net as well as CASE-IH only to find no new ones available. So, it looks like this one will have to be repaired. 

Actually the crack is already in a repair that is over 20 years old—at least none of us remember having it fixed it the last 20 years, could be 30 years, who knows? Anyway, radiator repair shops here are practically non-existent. I’ve already talked to every independent tractor mechanic, dealership, and the good-old –boy network, nobody knows of a repair shop they will recommend. One shop I have used in the past is over an hour away, the last job we sent they couldn’t find the leak, so I wound up reinstalling the radiator and adding a can of stop leak. The other shop charged me $90 to solder around the fitting for the temp sensor and spray a little paint from a rattle can. They never flushed it, the paint job was lousy, and didn’t pressure test it as I had another leak show up a couple days later that I fixed with stop leak. So I’m still mining the network to see if anyone will recommend a different shop, but so far no one even knows of another shop, much less recommending one.

If I can’t find one, what kind of success have you guys had with soldering radiators. Its rather funny that of all the mechanics I know, none ever fix radiators, they just send them to a shop or replace. I guess the thinking is a shop can properly flush it and pressure test it. Do you use oxy/acty torch or just a propane torch? Acid core solder, right? How do you prep the surface?

John Hall