Just been checking the Blade over and ended up having to take the nose cone off to investigate further, found a build up of water in the lip of my radiator, dried it off and brought the engine up to working temperature (well let it warm up untill the fan kicked in to pressurise the system ) noticed an occassional drip from the mounting for the temp switch, the radiator is an MK modified one (no I'm not slagging MK off this rad is over 5 years old ) The mounting for the temp switch is a brass nut about 6 mm thick soldered to the rad top,
question. would it be an easy job to re-solder the nut in place, given the heat required to warm the nut in comparison to the surrounding brass, I'm worried about melting the solder were the top attatches to the core, also what grade solder would you suggest using. ie ordinary plumbing


[img]
Radiator leak [/img]

many thanks

tony

[Edited on 18/5/11 by mad-butcher]

Why don't you braze it? If you get the torch up to a good pin-point flame yu should be able to spot braze a bit at a time.

Or you could wait for the experts to come along and give you a good answer

quick and easy way is to mix up a bit of 2 part epoxy like araldite and put a smear around the join

JB weld might be the easiest (similar to epoxy)

Traditional radiators were assembled with different grades of solder starting with higher melting point solder and working down to a low melting point solder for the later stages.

Any attempt a brazing would melt not only the soldered joints but the brass the radiator is made from low melting point radiator repair solder is what is required, with all the silly EU regs on lead solder don't know who sells it.

Any commercial radiator shop should be able to run solder into it for you.

[Edited on 18/5/11 by britishtrident]

I have successfully repaired a radiator like that with plumbers solder and flux. I did it in situ with water in the radiator up to just above the level of the soldering between the tank and the core which protected it from melting whilst the soldering above was carried out above the water level.

Or do as BT says take it to a specialist who probably will only charge a tenner.

2 words... QUICK STEEL!!!!

Easy to fix, take off the rad, lay it on its back and clean the area very well, then just flux and plumbers solder, just get it hot enough for the solder to flow and work into the area, get it to hot and the solder will drip away.

or you could use an egg!

well it won't be the first and certainly not the last time I've used that method to get me home

tony