So, am I just being cheap or ?

[mythreesons]

Starting a new job in a couple of weeks and I needed a new vehicle to DD because I don't want to feed the 1 ton chevy with the 454. Looked high and low, been watching for some time, can't find a MJ that is close enough to fix up, so I bought an XJ. It's a 95, 4.0, AW4, 231 TC, standard stuff. Get it home this afternoon and start making my list of immediate replace parts.........Why does it look like it has spewed coolant........Oh, I see. The hose that runs to the overflow/recovery bottle isn't hooked to the radiator fill tube. I reach over and find that the hose has nothing to plug onto. The plastic tube that the rubber hose goes over is broke off.

 

So my cheapskate question is....... Why not just make a hole and screw in a brass connector with a hose barb, plug the overflow hose on and get on to other things?

 

Obviously, the plastic is 15 years old (at the most) and probably brittle so care must be taken, but still.........Am I just being cheap or is my redneck showing? :roll:

[jimoshel]

Sounds reasonable to me.

[dfreeman616]

i've done that before...and i'm a mechanic :D just keep a close eye on it if you do it...

[fiatslug87]

Why not, it's not under pressure.

[HOrnbrod]

I've done this before. Get the correct size hose barb fitting to NPT adapter fitting (it's either 5/16" or 3/8" hose to 1/8" NPT as I remember) along with a 1/8" NPT tap if you don't have one. Tap the rad neck filler hole out carefully and screw the adapter into the tapped hole carefully using teflon tape. The adapter will be under pressure off and on if the pressure in the cooling system gets over 12#, so a new radiator cap might be in order too.

 

http://fittingsandadapters.com/malpiptap.html

[mythreesons]

Thanks folks. I really didn't think I was just being cheap, just "careful" about where I spend money. When I get into the engine bay, I'll check the radiator real close before I try to "fix" the overflow tube.

 

Don, yes a new cap is in order. The old one is stamped 16 lbs. and looks like it has been there a few years. I learned the hard way that radiator caps do wear out and should be replaced every so often.