Mine is all rotted to hell and I need to change coolant this weekend. How much of a PITA is it going to be to get this thing off? Its badly corroded, probably going to need to get a new water pump for it if I cannot get it off.

 

You might as well do the water pump too just to be sure there is nothing wrong.

 

I believe u gotta take the pump off to remove/install old/new factory tube OR......as an alternative, we used a 5/8" hose barb X 3/8" male NPT brass nipple....it'll never rust/corrode. Get it at just about any hardware store. The small heater hose needs to be a little longer, just measure and cut new hose to fit.

 

You might be able to remove it with a small pipe wrench. If not you got to remove the pump.

 

Mine is stuck too and I don't want to go out and buy another one. We will see how I get this off.

 

I am doing mine tonight - I believe the only way to do it painfree is to fit a new pump...the brass nipple idea looks like a good long term solution too.

 

yea mine was all rotted up too...i was putting on a new water pump anyways so i replaced the inlet tube as well $10 at NAPA.

 

Hi! Great idea. What did you use to glue/weld the threaded piece in? Was the hole threaded? Thanks!

 

my hero!

 

djb knows the cooling system pretty dang well. He's usually the dude to ask when you need a tip or trick

 

Thermostat housing needs to be removed at a bare minimum. Part is about $12 at Napa.

 

It's threaded. The goop you see is pipe thread sealer.

 

.......and I got this tip/trick here or one of the other XJ forums. I just snapped a pic...not smart enough to think of it myself.

 

You're not as awesome as I thought. Bummer

 

Not even just a little?????.......at least I didn't/don't post pics taken with a phone.