This was funny.....nice one. :) Cheers.
-DP -----Original Message----- From: Nathan Pralle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 10:50 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [dodge_intrepid] Radiator If your experience in draining your 3.5L radiator is anything like mine, it'll go something like the following: 1. Decide that the radiator needs to be drained. In my case, I had the motivation of a thermostat that was stuck and a wife that was pissed. Nothing like incentive. 2. Choose a night on which to do this that you could and/or should have been doing something else, but you decided to work on the car. This will prompt said spousal figure to wave her arms in frustration when asked where her husband is and sigh in reply, "He's out, somewhere, 'fixing' the car." 3. Jack up the car and put it on jackstands. Prop the hood up with a 2x2 because the cylinders are bad, get your favorite clip-on lamp attached to the hood, and locate *tools*. 4. Pull off the cap from the overflow bottle. Have a beer, that was a lot of work! 5. Get underneath the front of the car on your back. Whack your head on the air damn. Didn't see that, did you? Well, don't worry, this isn't the first time in this repair that you'll be using the word "damn". 6. Get out your Haynes manual and have it lying next to you on the floor, open to the section on draining the radiator, and from time to time glance at it like a monkey doing a math problem as you attempt to sort out exactly what you're seeing on the page. If nothing else, it makes you LOOK professional. 7. You want to be under the car on the passenger's side, about halfway between the foglight and the license plate holder. There's a bar that the air damn attaches to. Get yourself a beer. Then sort out what you're looking at. There are wire bundles running above it and around it and will constantly thwart your ability to do anything useful. 8. Realize that on the day the radiator was designed at DCX, Marvin Sporskinsky, Radiator Design Engineer Extraordinaire, was out sick, so they gave the job to Joeboy Dipsoto to design. He designed it such that there is a plug behind this bar between the radiator and the bar with just enough space to permanently lose a finger. This plug you can maybe turn with your fingers as it is plastic or the equivalent. In all likelihood you'll have to attempt to get a pliers or something similar behind there to get it broken loose. 9. Glance at the Haynes manual. They mention something about connecting a hose to a nipple. Chuckle as you appreciate the choice of words. The hose is supposed to go through a hole in said bar and attach to a drain nipple back in the murky depths. 10. Search your garage for anything resembling a hose. Find some old aquarium hose. Try to attach it for several minutes, swearing all the while, determine that it isn't REALLY needed, and go back to loosening the drain plug. 11. Finally get the drain plug loosened and yell as you are drenched with radiator fluid. Bang your head on the frame and scratch your face on the air damn as you attempt to get out of the way. Say 'damn' a few times as well as other well-placed words. Watch in helplessness as the radiator contents piss down mostly onto the ground, somewhat into the buckets you've placed underneath to catch it all. 12. Find that this is a good time to have a beer. Also a warm towel doesn't hurt. 13. Remove the thermostat housing and continue with the repair (or whatever else you were going to do). At this point, I decided to flush the whole bit so I went and shoved a garden hose into the head and turned it on high and left it run for awhile. I found that I had to twist the drain plug out all the way and it would fall out, then water would drain out even FASTER. 14. Once satisfied with your cleaning, drain completely, replace the plug with, again, much swearing as you can't see what the hell you are doing, refill the system and bleed the air out of it appropriately. 15. Have another beer. You've earned it. Nathan ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/6iY7fA/5WnJAA/Y3ZIAA/46t0lB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Web: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid> Subscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Moderator: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
