Reply To: Radiator Removal

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Gene Reeves, Chris Diekman, and Joe Mann gave me invaluable advice when I removed the radiator in my Pierce, and I think that it is great that Gene has put the general procedure in written form.

I’ll add a note of caution. During reinstallation, there is significant potential for assembling the parts in slightly different relative positions than they had originally. Unless there is some obvious problem in the original assembly, take care to keep the relative position of the parts as close to original as possible. To give just one example, I replaced the flat rubber spacer between the radiator and frame with one that was just slightly thicker than the one that had previously been in the car (after all, wouldn’t a thicker spacer better protect the radiator from those harsh bumps in the road?). Only trouble is that this raises the front of the hood without raising the back. So now the hood did not properly fit into its opening. So I had to go all the way back to where I could replace the spacer with one of the proper thickness, and then proceed with reinstallation again. Should I say that these old cars have a lot more “part position interdependence” than more modern ones? Don’t know if that is the proper way to say it, but I will say that you may end up with a lot of extra work if you don’t put parts back together the way they came apart!