[AT] repairing radiators

[Charlie V]

As usual, Steve;s plan is a sound one.  Maybe the biggest trick in this
repair is temperance with the heat.  For example, where is the crack
located on the tank.  Is it near the bottom where the tank is soldered to
the core?  Near the inlet or outlet or fill neck???  Those are the most
delicate areas.  Just a little too much heat at a time to radiate out to
any other soldered joints and melt them out can leave you worse off than
you are now.  Just enough heat at the point of your repair is the key.  I
have a couple of old radiators holding coolant that may be more solder than
brass of copper and I am self taught at this repair, so it can be done.  I
have repaired some where I had to cut out sections of damaged tubes, crimp
them over, then solder, but they still do their job.  Go gentle and with
patience and constant observation of the surrounding areas to the repair
you are doing.

Charlie V.

On Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 6:32 AM, <jtchall at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>