It Runs and Doesn't Leak anymore... MC9 Radiator Job - Whew !!

[Hartley]

My bus is running again... Finally !!!


Replacing a radiator core is a royal pain in the sitting area, I know I just did the drivers side on my MC9...

It seemed that every one of the old bolts that hold the top and bottom tanks on the old radiator were welded into place
and no amount of air power was adequate as most of the heads just sheared off.

So out came the angle grinder with a 1/16 inch wide 4 inch cutoff blade and all the nuts and washers fell victim.
what I couldn't get too were twisted off. What a mess !!

After removing the tanks and frames I had to drill out the broken bolts and retap about 20 holes, Then I abrasive blasted them to neat and shiny and painted them satin black ( no not the inside!)..

I clamped the tanks to the new core and got my wife to drill out all the holes through the brass header plates on both ends.
I cleaned and assembled the core and tanks and side frames which took a while even with air tools, Gads that's a lot of 5/16 bolts!

We hefted the radiator into the hole and spent the better part of 2 hours looking for the top bracket ( that was put is a safe place! ) I hooked everything up.. well almost everything...

The hose clamp for the bottom of the radiator is almost impossible to get to, Never mind that during the placement of the radiator it got kocked off and the band popped out of the teeth. I fought with getting the clamp back under there for an hour or so and finally got it to tighten. NEVER AGAIN !!!! My arms look like I have been juggling Ginsu knives from the blade end....

I am not feeling brave enough to tackle the other radiator yet, It's in pretty good shape and working fine.
Now that I know how to do them and how long it takes The next one ( if ever ) won't be such a pain...

Dave.....

[plyonsMC9]

Dave,

Nice post.  Truly a story from the trenches.     Sounds like a full day of torture.   Hopefully the bus runs cooler after this?

Best Regards, Phil