I feel sorry for those souls who have trekked up the Himalayas, or torture their bodies by participating in triathlons. Imagine the costs of preparation and training leading to self doubts and frustration! I, too have reaped such "reward" recently by venturing no farther than 20 feet from my front door. You see, I accomplished the ultimate achievement merely by replacing the radiator in my TR3B, without the removal of its front cowling.
Readers may question my dislike of the original factory procedure at this point. I purposely chose to remove the radiator without the removal of the front cowling because there are many TR3s with either too beautiful paint work or with their cowling in place, hoping never to remove it again, or for any of a dozen other reasons which TR3 owners are well aware. Why, removal of the front cowling is the absolute last resort. I had to find out how this task could be accomplished. Logic here is that most hobbyists are far more willing to take the extra time to pull nuts and bolts, though it's more time consuming, than to pay a professional to touch up and match color on body seams.
Owing to the radiator's lower mounting brackets, it's "easier" to pull the radiator from the top side than to drop it from the bottom. Trust me on this point. To accomplish this task, I first pulled the lower hose out at the radiator's end then followed the steps below.
1. Cover the radiator's front and back sides with pieces of cardboard shaped to protect the cooling fins during removal and installation.
2. Remove both horns
3. Remove thermostat housing and the bypass hose
4. Remove water pump after generator is loosened on its bracket
5. Remove front chassis tube
6. Remove lower radiator mounting bolt on each side, then push the radiator as far forward as possible
7. Remove fan assembly and hub extension
8. Remove top hose
9. Remove plunger apertures, onto which the bonnet release lever locks
Once the repaired radiator sat back inside the car, I re-installed all pieces in the reverse order. My total time expenditure was about 12 hours for the entire job. But now that I am a veteran, I believe the same job can be completed in 6 uninterrupted hours.
Would I do it again? My answer is the same as Sir Francis Chichester's, when he was asked the same question at the completion of his solo trans-world sail, "Yes, but not tomorrow, though.".
Michael Ling
Santa Barbara, CA
Thanks for your article to remove the radiator without removing the nose assembly. The only thing I would add is that at least on my small mouth TR3 in order to remove/ replace the center bolt from the fan assembly and to remove/replace the fan bolts it is necessary to have the radiator with the crank hole as you can't move the radiator far enough forward to remove them any other way. You can slide an extension with a socket easily into the hole and if the radiator is loose it becomes fairly easy to move the radiator arround a bit to line up the bolts. Glad to have seen the article, saved me a ton of work and the potential of some paint damage doing it the other way. With an air ratchet the process can be done in 6 hours as the article suggests.
Jerry Kehoe
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