Help!!!!

[StagnJag]

I have got myself in a bit of a pickle and need some advice!

I have popped down to visit a friend for the weekend and he is giving me a hand to flush the cooling system. We have just managed to dislodge the bottom hose boss on the radiator. We now have the radiator out, no where locally is open to get it repaired. We are poised with a plumbers blowtorch, flux and solder. Ady advice you can give will be really appreciated. I am a bit concerned we will dislodge the solder on the ends of the core. Neither of us has tackled soldering other than wiring before.

Any advice, thoughts or warnings???? At the moment i am stuck as it is my only means of getting home tomorrow! (110 miles!)

Cheers

Dave

[73stagman]

For the solder to "take" the adjoining metal work must be SERIOUSLY CLEAN. Personally I wouldn't try with lead solder although that is the way a recent article in PC magazine showed how to do it.
I have a repair to do but will be using silver solder with a oxy acet kit and will try to find a heat barrier material that Frost sell

Good luck!

[milothedog]

I have got myself in a bit of a pickle and need some advice!

I have popped down to visit a friend for the weekend and he is giving me a hand to flush the cooling system. We have just managed to dislodge the bottom hose boss on the radiator. We now have the radiator out, no where locally is open to get it repaired. We are poised with a plumbers blowtorch, flux and solder. Ady advice you can give will be really appreciated. I am a bit concerned we will dislodge the solder on the ends of the core. Neither of us has tackled soldering other than wiring before.

Any advice, thoughts or warnings???? At the moment i am stuck as it is my only means of getting home tomorrow! (110 miles!)

Cheers

Dave

Dave, I tried calling you, give me a ring and I'll tell you what to do. Ian

[StagnJag]

Hi Ian,

Sorry I didn't get back to you, rubbish signal here so I had my phone turned off. We bit the bullet and had a go at re-soldering the boss. I think it is ok! A bit messy, but solid. We are going to try and rig up some sort of test in the morning and see if it is watertight. I have been on the' Vin Rouge' tonight so not really in a fit state to call you back at the moment! I will try and give you a bell in the morning at some point if that is ok.

Cheers

Dave

[milothedog]

No problem Dave, not to early I hope, it sounds like you have it sorted now anyway.

Ian.

[jbuckl]

Sounds like necessity is the mother of soldering technique.
Glad to hear its a go-er

Hi Ian,

Sorry I didn't get back to you, rubbish signal here so I had my phone turned off. We bit the bullet and had a go at re-soldering the boss. I think it is ok! A bit messy, but solid. We are going to try and rig up some sort of test in the morning and see if it is watertight. I have been on the' Vin Rouge' tonight so not really in a fit state to call you back at the moment! I will try and give you a bell in the morning at some point if that is ok.

Cheers

Dave

[StagnJag]

Just to close this one out, after a bit more soldering in the morning we rigged up a bit of an air test using a bicycle pump some bits of inner tube and a large flexible bucket. All good, so rad went back in the car and I have now done around 150 miles on it, 100 of which were on the motorway and it has behaved itself perfectly. I am well chuffed to say the least.

I did manage to take the off the skin from one of my knuckles by getting it in the way of the fan though. That wasn't so good! So safety note to self: Switch off car before working around the radiator bottom hose!!!

High point of the weekend was my mates 7 year old son deciding to make me breakfast in bed this morning. Marmalade on toast. Tray arrived with toast, tub of margarine and jar of marmalade with the instruction to "be quick because I need the marmalade for mummy's toast".

Rgds

Dave