Hey All,

First post here.

So, the idler pulley froze and took itself off. Easy fix... however, he-man here, while loosening the tensioner to get it back on, managed to go too far with my bar and cracked the upper hose neck. Anyone ever tried to plastic weld that or use JB or other product? Would rather not buy a new radiator. The old girl has 348,000 on her and this is the first time she stranded me.

1994 4.0

 

If you cracked the plastic hose barb all the way into the radiator plastic side tank,
anything more than the very outer end of the barb, I'd not trust any JBW or plastic weld to get reliably down the road.
If this radiator has 100kMiles or more, then it's tour of duty is up anyway & time for a replacement.

 

+1 ^^^^

But I would try JB weld and see how it works out, let it dry!!!!!, over night
You really can't make it worse, lol
The cooling system only holds 14psi so it should be OK

But if its old it may be time for a new one in any case, as said

 

If replacing,
& old radiator is 1Row PlasticTanked, consider upgrading to a 2Row\3Row AllAluminum version;
or old radiator is 2Row PlasticTanked, consider upgrading to a 3Row\4Row AllAluminum version.

 

Thanks guys. Thinking I'll give JBW a try as can't hurt anything.

 

Put it around the whole neck joint, not just at the crack, because if it cracked at the joint that means the whole joint moved so would be weak all the way around

And as said, the key to JB Weld is letting it cure/dry, its often used as a "quick" fix, and fails because of the "quick" part, lol

 

Well.... JBW did not work.

Will be ordering up a new radiator and change out hoses, thermostat while at it.

 

Did you cover it with Duct Tape after it was dry............................................... ........

 

Good Lord - is it possible to get well made auto parts anymore? Installed the new radiator....and.....both trans fittings leaked from the threads to the cooler. At least was easy fix with thread tape - but should not have to use thread tape there.

 

I'm pretty sure antifreeze eats teflon tape for lunch, might want to go with a dirrerent sealing method.

 

This is the tranny cooler fittings though. No anti-freeze to worry about.