That petcock drain is a POS, designed by the devil himself. It may not be out far enough to drain or the radiator is so plugged up it has blocked the drain hole.

Do like freegdr says and pop the lower hose off.

 

These were some of the first issues i dealt with in my jeep. Pulling the lower radiator hose is the easiest option like others are saying. Id also recommend a prestone flush kit. They are about 10 dollars and you cut your lower heater core hose and put in the t shaped adapter then you hook a harden hose up and it forces water through and dislodges most of the crud in there. Antifreeze is glycol based and as it ages it can become acidic which is what kills the water pumps. Oh let me find a picture from my taurus! be right back =P

 

This is the water pump from my taurus.

 

LOL, might be right. Still SoB
Age is my defense

 

Oh wow. That picture....

I prodded at the drain hole with a ziptie and...sploosh.

Today's progress: radiator out. Mangled the upper tranny cooler line even though I was really really trying not to.

Fortunately, I have another.

Got the thermostat housing off. Fought with the serpentine belt for an hour because nothing made sense [left/right dyslexia type issues], but I got that off.

I also got the heater control valve off. Mostly. Not in one piece. The plastic was very brittle.

And then the sun disappeared.

I broke a couple of things. The studs? On top of the old radiator. So I'm off to get new ones, some hose, and all sorts of hose clamps.

Tomorrow I start on the lines at the transmission, and then start working backwards.

Just noticed how wrong that sounded. The stud thing. I meant that they sheared off when I was removing the nuts, so I had to get new nuts.

At least it was the old radiator and not something important.

 

Smit happens on older vehicles sounds like your doing just fine full speed ahead ...

 

One word of advice on new radiator give drain plug a little snugging b4 install it a mother to do after you've installed it .

 

Yup. Today's the dreaded transmission cooler lines, work backwards. Between not getting to sleep until five this morning, and having to set time aside for phone calls, I'm getting a late start.

See, my fan clutch and blade arrived in a damaged box, and a blade was pretty badly bent. I just dealt with that with the seller--they're sending me another one free.

Then I just have to hope that the connectors [800714] show up.

They were supposed to be here yesterday--AutoZone, I think, not only had the best local price, but beat the competition in shipping. If I went to the store and paid for them, they would be at my house the next day. Which was awesome until they didn't show up at all, and I found out that they'd only ordered one--only charged me for one--and then forgot to send it anyway.

If you're wondering why I didn't catch any of that, it was because I wasn't there. I was at home, trying to clean as much as I could.

Fortunately, the guy at the store was more upset about the mistake than we were, and he redid the order, and made sure we got two sent to us instead of one.

...and I have to go pick up one last oops part. The coolant temperature sensor on the thermostat housing? The plug fell victim to brittle plastic disease. So I get to figure out how to get that out.

Still, I think all this should go much more quickly once I'm putting things on instead of fighting to take things off.

 

Okay. First problem of the day. Transmission pan drain plug will not come out.

 

LOL.

It's called CRS. Can't Remember ****.

 

Nevermind. I am A. An idiot, and B. A tiny and weak female.

 

.

 

Makes sense. But the price on overnight shipping was right, and I earned the delay.

 

Slow down.

You may be a tiny weak female, but I don't think you are an idiot. There's plenty of tiny brained, weak-minded, males on the Forum from time to time.

Take your time and plan things out ahead of time.

 

Epic thread.
CoffeeChick, you are doing a better job then the garage that quoted you $800 would ever do.
I'm doing or have done all the same stuff.
My valve cover is off right now.

Tranny lines are here.
Funny how the little pieces they have to order but the 6 foot part is in stock.