[AT] repairing radiators

[Cecil R Bearden]

If you are going to do it yourself, look on ebay or the antique shops to 
find some copper soldering irons.   Get a propane heater burner like the 
turkey fryer ones or the crawdad boil ones and use that to heat the iron 
( copper) This will keep you from melting the solder in the radiator a 
long ways from the repair.  If you do use the torch on the radiator, 
then make the patch out of a thicker metal than the tank so yo can play 
the heat on the patch and the tank will get up to soldering temp by 
conduction.   Make sure everything is clean and use a little muriatic 
acid to clean it with.  A little goes a long ways.  Also use acid core 
solder, or solid solder and flux.   LACO makes a flux & solder mix that 
works great.  Clean your surfaces on to patch and then spread this flux 
over the work area and heat the patch while holding it close to the 
radiator. Another thing, make sure that nothing moves while you are 
soldering...   We used to use copper pennies to solder holes with a 
propane torch.  If you preheat with the torch a little then the 
soldering Irons work good.  There are also some really big electric 
soldering irons around that will work.  There is only one radiator shop 
in Oklahoma that I will take one to.   It is called Osborn Radiator and 
they have been in business since the 30's. They are in OKC.  I took my 
4010 radiator to them when another shop claimed they would need to re 
core it.   Osborn rodded it and soldered 4 of the cores and it has held 
for over 10 years...

Cecil in OKla


On 12/6/2014 7:38 AM, David Bruce wrote:
> I also have had a great experience with them.
>
> David
> NW NC
>
> On 12/6/2014 8:18 AM, Spencer Yost wrote:
>> http://www.kingradiator.com
>>
>> They are about 15 minutes from my place and I have been using them since I had the Pacer radiator done 20 years ago.   I have had 3 done since then and have been happy.
>>
>> Probably 2-2.5 hours from you though.     If you want to meet me in Mooresville(where I work and not too far from you) I'll carry it to King and back for you.
>>
>> I've never tried to repair a radiator:   King is too close to bother trying.
>>
>> Spencer
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Dec 6, 2014, at 6:32, <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
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com