When I replaced my radiator, I was redoing the a/c, so I
took the condenser out with it. I ended up taking the sway
bar completely off to have room. Can anyone say if there is
enough room to only need to take the sway bar loose from the
crumple tube? If you remove the sway bar completely, you
may need to replace some bushings. The fasteners are all
supposed to be torqued to spec with thread-locker. Get
ready to find that the previous bozo cross-threaded the
fasteners holding the sway bar brackets. It's a good idea
to presoak all the fasteners with penetrating oil. The
shroud is held in a few places with Rivnuts which can strip.
The new brass radiator is a bit thicker which causes a
clearance issue with the fan shroud. I had to cut deeper
notches in the shroud to fit the ends of the crumple tube.
The thicker radiator put the fans so far back that the
blades were hitting the ends of the crumple tubes. I fixed
this by mounting the fans with longer bolts & stacks of
washers. It's not the neatest job, but it works. I intend
to replace those power hungry old clunker fans with modern
flat ones soon. The rusty brackets that go from the top of
the radiator to the crumple tube will need to be reshaped to
accommodate the thicker radiator.
So did you have the privilege of experiencing the wonder
taste of antifreeze? Yum! I think they should make it a
Gator-Aid flavor. DPNW (Toby) also sells an extra radiator
bleeder for the top line. I bought one at Pigeon Forge, but
haven't used it yet.
Be sure to use the old green variety of antifreeze. The new
orange stuff is not compatible with lead based solder used
in brass radiators & heater cores.
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