Timing belt done- little ops with the radiator

badassjeep · **Joined:** Tue May 10, 2011 9:18 am **Posts:** 66

I replaced my timing belt over the weekend, I have never done one prior. I'm not sure I would want to again :shock:

I hit my radiator with my 1/2 drive, and I now appear to have a small pin hole leak.

Has anyone had to replace/patched their's? Is it the same as the 3.7L gas liberty?

BTW, I had 74K on my 05 and the belt looked pretty good, if I flexed it farther than the installed route I found a few cracks.

At 8 years old, I would recommend anyone that hasn't hit 100K to replace it.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Mon Sep 23, 2013 4:20 pm

Opps, easy to do which is why I've been recommending a towel or piece of plastic between fan and radiator during fan/fan shroud removal followed by a fan shroud mod so future access does not require fan shroud removal.

If the core is metal a local radiator shop maybe can fix it. It's not the same as the 3.7L radiator; IIRC that radiator has the tranny cooler in the bottom as opposed to the CRD tranny cooler which is in the bottom of the AC condenser. That said I wonder if the 3.7L radiator would fit the space and you would just leave that tranny cooler unused.

badassjeep · **Joined:** Tue May 10, 2011 9:18 am **Posts:** 66

Good to know about the gasser, guess I will avoid going that route. I was surprise how little of a hit it took to do damage. I should have put some cardboard in there, I almost did but didn't want to bother, figured I would just be careful. :banghead:

I found a new one (CRD part#) for $270 plus shipping.
Since I haven't put the fan but on it looks easy to pull out and bring into a repair shop. I assume that a little JB weld would not be recommended?

geordi · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:37 am

JB weld might work, but you will need to get it solidly all around the damage and understand that it will be holding up to 16 lbs of pressure. You may be best served by removing the radiator and working the JB into the fins (I'm assuming that is where the damage is) while it is laying on a flat surface so the JB is on top. Once it has cured ***HARD*** then you might want to cap off the inlet and outlet, and pressurize the radiator to 15 lbs with shop air and see if it hisses or leaks over time. If not, then you should be good to go.

A decent radiator shop should be able to do all of this for you. If the damage is on either of the plastic end tubs... Sorry, but I think that would be considered a terminal failure. The radiator shop *might* be able to fix that, but I wouldn't count on it.

badassjeep · **Joined:** Tue May 10, 2011 9:18 am **Posts:** 66

It's in the metal (fins) right in the middle.

airwerks · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 3:08 pm

badassjeep wrote:

Has anyone had to replace/patched their's?.

I did the exact same thing when I did my timing belt job. :oops:

Took it to a radiator shop to have them braze it, they gave it a 50/50 shot when I dropped it off(the core is AL) but it has held now for 10k miles. Problem is aluminum is REALLY picky that the metal is clean before you try to braze or tig it.... and you just can't get inside the core to clean it. They only charged me $65 so it was worth the try.

Timing belt done- little ops with the radiator

Who is online