Sword

Hey guys I had noticed my temperature gauge slowly marching up and decided to do a radiator flush (never done it, not exactly sure what to do) and I bought the parts and when I came rolling into my house it started steaming BAD (the temp gauge was past the red).

I don't fully know the correct name but it appears to be a heater hose that someone spliced a t-joint in, the piece melt and snapped, then whatever it connects to (looks like something with a vacuum advance perhaps) almost like a plastic manifold, the top most piece snapped off (I am hoping this is just a right-angle adapter).

Anyway what is this piece? Is it easy to find? Is heater hose 5/8''?

Is there a plug on the bottom to just flush this thing out? I am pretty handy, just never done this before.

Thanks for any answer or time.

Sword

Looking online it appears to be the heater control valve that also busted when I was messing with the hose. Do all ports take 5/8' hose?

cruiser54

Eliminate the heater valve. Plug the vacuum line to it.

It's totally unnecessary and as you already have seen, prone to failure.

Go to the parts store and get 2 new formed heater hoses for a 97 Cherokee.

EZEARL

Or if you want to get hoses long enough to mount over to the fender well. I did this to get the hot coolant hoses away from the valve cover HOPING it may reduce engine heat some. Don't really know if it helped or not.

Sword

Hey guys so just completed the job. Not sure what the problem was with the extreme over-heating ( I was well past the red zone) but flushed it a few times, replaced that valve, swapped new hoses on all 4 of the valve ports, and loaded it up. Runs much cooler like 140ish. Is there anything to do about the small rocks stuck inevitably in the radiator grill?

EZEARL

Shouldn't be running at 140ish. Should vary from 195 to 210 depending on the operating situation. How old is the radiator?

Sword

I assume the radiator is stock, meaning 96. I did NOT replace the thermostat, would this cause the problem I am having? The problem is that my temperature seems to vary, I was driving and was hanging around 180ish, but then a shorter drive I was at like 240~ and I heard the radiator revving. The fluid is clean given I just flushed it.