You must log in or register to comment.
Possibly. I am a cnc machinist and I. Made a tube for mine and put it in the hole and then it actually worked till the car was scrapped.
Like u/DukeOfAlexandria said, once the plastic is brittle enough to break like that, you most likely have to replace it. Even if you could cut that nipple out, and epoxy it back on, it’s likely to just snap or crumble when you try and get the hose back on. Odds are the whole nipple is just going to crumble to dust trying to get it out of the hose…
If the radiator is degraded, hoses are likely bad/need to be replaced. If there’s a plastic thermostat housing, etc., assuming those pieces are degraded as well. If you have to replace the thermostat, assume the housing is bad so you have the parts for it.
I thought about doing the temporary fix as you all mentioned but don’t know how long temporary is so I just pulled a radiator at the junkyard for $40 bucks… thanks every single person for taking time to respond. i read almost every comment and enjoyed seeing how creative you all are. hopefully i get this radiator in nicely and we’re good to go. i broke it while trying to force my alternator out
Yep
This happened to me before! My god I was so pissed. Luckily I went through multiple items to get it to work. This is going to sound crazy but it works. If you have an extra bicycle laying around take the brake adjuster of the handle bars, it’s like a little aluminum piece that has thread and an opening. I punched in the thread into the radiator and connected the hose over the brake adjuster and a clamp. Happened years ago and never had a leak or anything. It’s not stupid if it works 🤷🏽♂️
GENIUS!! how did you even think of this? thanks!! probably will go the route of getting a new radiator but i’ll mess around on the old one with this hack you showed me
Is near impossible with appropriate precautions and tools to proper recover plastics like that. The epoxy or glue alone aren’t enough because they can’t stick to that kind of plastics.
The only two options really available:
-
Tapping the radiator side and insert a nipple with a bit of Teflon (like someone already said, that’s the easier way);
-
Find a copper/aluminum tube with the exact outer diameter of the inner diameter of the broken part and get it stiff inside like to reinforcing it.
Only then you can get some steel Epoxy to bond all together or try to slowly melt both sides together with an old soldering iron (melting the plastic from both sides), but is really really difficult to do it properly.
P.S. Remember to use some kind of mask to protect lungs and eyes from fumes if you are melting that plastics.
-
I would leave it if it was my car.
I got a copper tube and drilled it out to tightly fit the copper tube. Works like a champ. You can add some epoxy, but whatever you do, you’ll really want some copper tube inside so that it doesn’t break again.
FYI, you can add some fibers to epoxy to give it more strength. A bit of fiberglass mat and epoxy over the outside can really help add some strength.
