Radiator removal and repair/ replacement.

My '92 Honda HA4 has been getting a little hot running around the deer lease. I knew the radiator was in bad shape. I brought it home and decided to remove it today. Here are some pics of the process.

First, I had to remove the bumper. There are bolts holding it underneath, and behind the turn signal, and inside the doors. It was not hard to remove.



Then, I removed the guard from under the radiator. It's not easy to see in these pictures, but there are 4 bolts for this guard.



Then, I removed the petcock to drain the fluid. After draining most of the fluid, I removed the bottom hose, and the wires for the sensor, and the fan.



Then, I removed the 2 bolts holding the radiator up at the bottom of the radiator. (no pics of this)
That allowed me to have a little room to remove the hose going to the radiator cap, which is inside the cab.

Once the radiator cap hose was removed, I could just pull the whole radiator down, and then remove the top hose.

 

The fan was still attached at this point. There are 3 bolts holding the fan onto the radiator. I twisted one of them off. As you can see, it's in bad shape. I haven't decided if I'm going to get a new one, or try to have this one re-cored. In one picture, you can see the number on it. I 'googled' that number and didn't come up with anything.



One last picture shows a hole on in the cab of the truck, where a small pipe on the top of the radiator goes into. Not sure exactly what this is for, but it just popped out when I let the radiator down.



I'll try to post more pics when I go back in with it.

 

Well....I just ordered one on ebay.

It's in Tokyo, and it said 13-30 days for delivery. (estimated delivery date April 4-April 17) But, the price is not bad, and free delivery. And it includes the fan.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/33069153318...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648#ht_9622wt_1002

 

good thread..that price doesn't seen too bad with shipping included

 

Great write-up and good find on eBay. Thanks for sharing!

Be sure to keep us up to date with your progress.

 

Update.....

Got an email from the Ebay seller. They said the one I bought was not in working order because it has a leak. They had to send it back to their vendor. So, they gave me the option of a refund, or they could try to find another.

Before I replied, I brought the old one to a radiator repair shop. The guy looked at it and said "There is nothing I can do with that"

So, I replied to the Ebay seller asking them to find me another. They do have another one listed. It say it's for a '91, and mine is a '92, but it looks exactly the same.

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

I'm getting a little worried. Twice, I've asked the seller if I could have one of the other radiators they have for sale on Ebay. I have not gotten a reply.

Several of them look exactly the same as the one in my '92, but they have them listed as different year models. Anywhere from a '91 to a '95 looks exactly the same.

 

After 3 messages, I got a response. They have offered me another radiator for $50 more than the first one I ordered. I agreed to the $50 more, and asked them to ship it asap.

I think that part of the problem for the slow response is because it was the weekend, and there is about a 13 hour time difference there.

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

Thanks for the update.

 

It's not looking good from this Ebay seller. Since I asked to purchase the second radiator 3 days ago, I have not gotten a reply. I have sent 3 messages since then, and still no reply. Today, I got a little nasty with the message, and I will ask Ebay for a refund if I don't hear from them within 12 hours. (It's 7am there now)

I'll post any results.

 

I did see that one from yokohama. It is in Tokyo too, and, if I figured correctly, the shipping would be about $100. And, the one I ordered includes the fan and free shipping.

I did get an email from the eBay seller last night. They said they are getting it ready to ship, and asked that I don't post negative feedback on eBay.

 

Woo Hoo!!! After another threatening email from me, I got a message that my radiator has shipped. They gave me a DHL tracking number and it shows that my item left Tokyo today, Monday April 2nd. I paid for it on March 17, so it took about 16 days for them to find a replacement and ship it.

I'll post progress.

 

Update....

It arrived at the DHL hub in Cincinatti, then got shipped to Regan National in Washington DC by mistake. Then, it got shipped back to Cincinatti, and has left there this morning, headed to New Orleans.

 

The radiator has arrived at my door. Not bad... Left Tokyo on Monday and delivered to my door around noon on Wednesday. It looks to be in very good condition. I'll post pics later.

 

Congrats man! Be sure to keep us posted!

I meant to reply earlier concerning DHL international shipping. About 3 months ago, I purchased some license plates from Maylasia off of eBay. There were also shipped via DHL took only 3 days from to Kentucky. I was rather impressed. I noticed on my sellers feedback that people had commented saying that DHL had supposedly hit them up for more money at the time of delivery (on packages from Maylasia to the US). My delivery guy was very nice and never asked for anything. My shipping was about $25 if I recall correctly (for two license plates in an envelope mailer) so I wasn't going to pay anything else. I thought that was fair shipping but felt like it should include all fees and it did. It doesn't sound like they asked you for any extra money either.

Good luck!

 

Got it installed. Just did in reverse of what I did to take it off.
This is what it looked like after I unpacked it.


First, I connected the top hose.



Then, I connected the hose that goes to the radiator cap.



Then, I secured the radiator in place at the bottom, where it bolts to the truck. (the radiator came with these bolts)



Next, I connected the bottom hose, the fan wire, and the sensor wires.



Then, I replaced the guard that protects the bottom of the radiator. There are 4 bolts holding this piece.



This is what it looks like back in place. All that was left to do is replace the bumper and turn signal lights. No photos of that.



After I got it all back together, I put about 1/2 gallon of pre-mixed antifreeze into it and took it for a spin. The temperature gauge came up about 1/3 of the way and held there. I'm letting it cool now to see if I can get some more antifreeze into it.

Looks like it will work out just fine. The fan didn't come on, but my old one never came on either, even when it got hot. I'll check that out later too.