I'm trying to drain the radiator on my 08 Ranger and I can't get it to drain. what am I missing. I turned the draincock 90 degrees and nothing happens. I don't think I can turn it more than 90 deg.

 

Just pull the lower hose. after doing that pull the cap to let it gust out

 

Ya, I thought about doing that but would perfer to drain it out the bottom of the radiator. I'm stump on to why it won't drain.

 

Pull off the rad cap.
The valve should turn more than 90.

 

I did that thinking that was the reason for it not draining. No luck.
That draincock only turns 90 degress, right?

 

Well, I ended up doing just that except I had the cap off. Ya, I had a mess :). I was loosing sun light and I didn't think it through before easing the hose off. A controlled mess.
Good thing I had a large drip pan under the two catch pails. :)

Thanks everyone for trying to help,

Dan

 

It's never fun , but sure interesting and messy.

 

Gotta ask how this gets fixed as well. I did a full/flush fill about a year ago Then, I recalled, turn the draincock, and it drained. No issues! Not happening a year later. WTF how to resolve this?

I ended up pulling the lower hose, lost a good bit of year old coolant mix in the waterfall. I would like to have a decent working draincock. There was significant resistance when trying to turn past 90* in either direction. I did work it back and forth. Last thing I want is a broken draincock on Sunday afternoon before I go back to work tomorrow. And on a 10-yr old truck, plastics are getting brittle.

Is that correct, its only supposed to turn 90*?

 

FYI: I ordered a spare drain **** when I got the truck 2 years ago. It's threaded plastic plain and simple with an "O" ring 50mm or so "into" the radiator.
Two fingers with barb hooks extend farther in. These allow you to unscrew the thing as much as you want without dropping it.
It sure looks like it should turn freely until all the threads clear.

Anybody try turning it beyond the 90 degrees AFTER pulling the lower hose and possibly breaking up piles of crud?

 

reading the post above... I had a look at Ford Parts online and you can buy the draincock. With the rad installed in the truck I couldn't tell if it could be separated from the Radiator while laying on my back in the driveway. I'll have to look closer next time I have that lower shroud/cover removed.

Images of the draincock at Ford Parts Online:

https://parts.ford.com/shop/en/us/en...onId:141075990

 

You can install a lower radiator hose bung, knife and two hose clamps for install, lol

This one has a valve: https://static.summitracing.com/glob...2201-11_xl.jpg

But just a bung and plug would do

I really got tied of plastic drain plugs not working

 

May want to plan on a new radiator; consider an AllAluminum 3Core\4Core with a traditional brass DrainCock.
My original 2001 factory PlasticTanked junk did it's duty for 15+ years, then split down hot side into the DrainCock.
Replaced it with an AllAluminum 4Core; should have done this 10years earlier,
runs nice & cool, on the hottest days, up the steepest grades, in the slowest traffic!