On a recent hunting trip while out of town, my radiator sprung a leak and had to be replaced. A friend in the area referred me to a local garage and the guy was kind enough to slip me into his busy lineup, replaced my radiator, and got me on my way. Everything was cool until this weekend when I decided to replace my thermostat. What I discovered was that when the guy re-attached my lower hose, he clamped the spring hose clamp from the top. This made it almost impossible to unclamp it because the fan shroud was right over the clamp and blocked it. It was a huge pain in the a$$ to loosen the shroud and move it up enough to get a tool on the clamp.


If you have your radiator replaced by a shop, ask them to make sure the lower clamp points down so you can reach it from the bottom. Just sayin'.

 

On H3's with the I5 motor, the lower fan shroud can be rotated into the top half by pressing a couple of detents and sliding it around to the upper half. That might have provided the clearance needed to get at the hose clamp.

 

Bunger - I rotated the shroud but the corner of the "square" part of the shroud was what was over the clamp.

 

Ah, that sucks. I'd be pissed too.

 

If you run into that situation again take a coat hanger bend a tight loop in it. Bend it to hook over the far part of the clamp and pull it towards you, the clamp will rotate to where you can get it with the pliers.
you are actually pulling on the clamp as if it was squeezing the clamp open which helps it rotate.
Done this many time with various vehicles.

 

The trusty old Craftsman Cotter Key Extractor works great for that stuff.

 

Doc,
I have an old screwdriver I bent like that...........Now I have a name for it!
Also Just wanted to say thank you for sharing all your wisdom here and helping many of us out.
Regards

 

jonnieh3 - Thanks for the tip. The only problem I'd have is finding a heavy wire hanger! They sure don't make them like they use to. All the wire hangers we have a flimsy things and the GF only uses wood or plastic.


Thanks for the feedback guys. I just wanted to share my pain!