Leaky Radiator Drain Tap

Tozzy · Post by **Tozzy** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:30 pm

I noticed the other day a small pool of coolant under the Brumby and found it was leaking from the drain plug in the radiator.

Before I unscrew it and maybe break it, is it plastic or metal? Does it screw into the radiator or is it soldered in?

The tap itself seems to be plastic. Can I just take it out and put a plug in it? If I want to drain it in the future I can always just un do the hose.

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:53 pm

Tozzy wrote:I noticed the other day a small pool of coolant under the Brumby and found it was leaking from the drain plug in the radiator.

Before I unscrew it and maybe break it, is it plastic or metal? Does it screw into the radiator or is it soldered in?

The tap itself seems to be plastic. Can I just take it out and put a plug in it? If I want to drain it in the future I can always just un do the hose.

Yes, the tap is plastic and yes they do break off.

Sometimes the leak is from around the metal thread where it is brazed to the tank. If it just the plug, yes you can block it or better still a 13mm(?) bolt to seal it for life.

Or plumber's tape

olddog642 · Post by **olddog642** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:50 pm

The same thing was happening with my brumby so what I did was take the radiator out and after inspecting the tap I carefully removed it, gave every thing a clean up including the threads then if I remember correctly (it was a long time ago for an old farts memory) I reassembled it with a light coating of stag and a O ring. The reason for taking the radiator out was so I could see what I was doing.
The only hassle was bleeding the system after putting the radiator back.
What I did was run the front left hand wheel up on the ramp and also cut the bottom out of a plastic bottle stuffed the neck into the radiator filler neck and kept topping it up as it was need, then let it cool down making sure the bottle had fluid in it.
Hylton:twisted::evil: