Bottom Hose

[thor]

I am going to change the thermostat [not enough heat coming in, except on a good run]....I know how to do the job, But how the heck do you get to the bottom jubilee clip [without disconnecting both hoses and lifting radiator up] 8O

sorry if it's an old question.

[terranokid]

why do you want the hose off? if your draining the system use the drain tap on the n/s of the rad

[thor]

Oh is there one. :roll: 8O ....you get so used to not having one or it's seized. that may save some hassle, I will have a look Monday.
Ta

[thor]

Okay where did you say it was?
I had to grab a torch and go for a look......but I could not find a drain tap on the radiator.
Any other suggestions.

[CHASTER]

Hi Thor.
I too couldn't find a drain valve and thought removing bottom hose clip would be very difficult so I changed my thermostat by placing a large clean tray under front of engine to catch anti-freeze and just undid top hoses to let coolant spill out. Took stat top housing off. More spilled out but TOTAL spillage was insignificant. This brought coolant level down about flush with bottom of thermostat housing and enabled me to replace stat easily. Made new gasket from greased cardboard and tightened down.
The tray was really only useful to prevent driveway being stained.
Didn't loose much coolant into tray and because the fluid picked up some dirt off the engine/chassis on the way down, I discarded it and added about half litre of fresh coolant SOLUTION to top up afterwards.
Didn't do any draining us such and there were no airlocks to deal with.
New thermostat keeps temp guage central and steady---It had been all over the place in the lower quadrant before.
Hope this helps. :smile:

[thor]

Thanks for the reply Chaster :smile: ........that was going to be one of my options.