What have you done to your square lately??

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ChuckN

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Radiohead said:
Found the before pic finally
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The whole reason I was monkeying with the bearing.
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All of your posts make me either feel thankful that I don’t have any symptoms from my steering column yet, or fearful for when it does.
 
JamesSam

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Redfish said:
@JamesSam Is that the drain petcock? If that is your leak point...that is an easy fix.
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Now that you mention it and looking closely to my own pics, It does seem to be puddling out right there under it. Suddenly I have the slightest bit of positivity. When time allows I will be investigating again. Should I be planing to replace the petcock? Or just replace an O ring on it? I am assuming there is no way to do this without draining the rad completely?
 
Redfish

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JamesSam said:
Now that you mention it and looking closely to my own pics, It does seem to be puddling out right there under it. Suddenly I have the slightest bit of positivity. When time allows I will be investigating again. Should I be planing to replace the petcock? Or just replace an O ring on it? I am assuming there is no way to do this without draining the rad completely?
Click to expand...
I am agreeing with @Radiohead.

I recently fought this little battle with a '79 Trans Am. The day before we were supposed to take it on a 9 day trip.

I bought a cheap hand pump from Harbor Freight. I mean ridiculously cheap. It is Awesome. I love it. I pumped the radiator dry, dropping the suction hose all the way to the bottom of the radiator through the cap opening. When I finished replacing the petcock I just put the coolant right back into the radiator.

I am going to break away from the group on radiators here... Every modern vehicle I can think of, including my 2500HD Duramax has a plastic body radiator. I have seen very few modern vehicles broke down on the road from a leaking radiator. Plastic radiators are a lot better than what they used to be. I am not happy about putting a plastic radiator in my '87. But the original metal one was leaking EVERYWHERE. I call that garbage.
 
JamesSam

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Redfish said:
I am agreeing with @Radiohead.

I recently fought this little battle with a '79 Trans Am. The day before we were supposed to take it on a 9 day trip.

I bought a cheap hand pump from Harbor Freight. I mean ridiculously cheap. It is Awesome. I love it. I pumped the radiator dry, dropping the suction hose all the way to the bottom of the radiator through the cap opening. When I finished replacing the petcock I just put the coolant right back into the radiator.

I am going to break away from the group on radiators here... Every modern vehicle I can think of, including my 2500HD Duramax has a plastic body radiator. I have seen very few modern vehicles broke down on the road from a leaking radiator. Plastic radiators are a lot better than what they used to be. I am not happy about putting a plastic radiator in my '87. But the original metal one was leaking EVERYWHERE. I call that garbage.
Click to expand...
Awesome tip. I will be looking at hand pumps. Is there a universal petcock or will I have to look for brand specific?
 
DoubleDingo

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mxer147 said:
I’m not restoring it to show condition so I plan to leave my personalized flaws in the paint. Considering it’s a driveway DIY paint job, it looks good enough and should protect the metal for another 10-20 years as it sits outside to weather.
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It's a truck, and it probably has better paint than from the factory
 
DoubleDingo

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JamesSam said:
Awesome tip. I will be looking at hand pumps. Is there a universal petcock or will I have to look for brand specific?
Click to expand...
The ones I've had to get were by size
 
Radiohead

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The factory brass one is still on board. Worse come to worse, the recycling value alone will probably go quite ways towards a replacement.
 
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JamesSam

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Redfish said:
I am agreeing with @Radiohead.

I recently fought this little battle with a '79 Trans Am. The day before we were supposed to take it on a 9 day trip.

I bought a cheap hand pump from Harbor Freight. I mean ridiculously cheap. It is Awesome. I love it. I pumped the radiator dry, dropping the suction hose all the way to the bottom of the radiator through the cap opening. When I finished replacing the petcock I just put the coolant right back into the radiator.

I am going to break away from the group on radiators here... Every modern vehicle I can think of, including my 2500HD Duramax has a plastic body radiator. I have seen very few modern vehicles broke down on the road from a leaking radiator. Plastic radiators are a lot better than what they used to be. I am not happy about putting a plastic radiator in my '87. But the original metal one was leaking EVERYWHERE. I call that garbage.
Click to expand...
@Redfish Andrew... BTW, was the 79 Trans AM your ex brother in laws by chance?
 
Radiohead

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I think the petcocks are sized by pipe size diameter. If you aren't sure, either remove the old one and use as a sample or get a couple different sizes and return the unnecessary one(s).
 
bucket

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Fwiw, the drain petcocks in the plastic radiator tanks are normally just a quick release thumb screw and they are usually a proprietary design with different manufacturers. Also, there's just a simple rubber gasket that seals it to the tank.

I'll also point out that if the tank/core crimp is leaking, it will leak out right in that same location.
 
DoubleDingo

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JamesSam said:
I take it the petcock will be proportionate to the radiator size? 17, 19, 21 inch etc..?
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I meant diameter. I honestly didn't know they were different sizes until I needed one for a new radiator.
 
DoubleDingo

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My new radiator that I got in June, it has a plug with holes drilled inside the plug, so when it's tight, no coolant comes out, but loosen it and it works like a regular petcock.
 
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