Jeep Cherokee Forum - Quick and easy way to drain radiator

So if you're reading this I'm going to assume you've tried to find the little drain port on the side of the XJ radiator that is standard on every vehicle out there and have discovered (much like I and everyone else) that Jeep put the access to drain your radiator in the dumbest possible location.

[NOTE: This is just to drain the amount of coolant that is in the radiator, if you throughly want to drain the jeep, you'll probably just want to pull the lower hose off the water pump]

I recently completely overhauled the cooling system on my '95 XJ with exception to the heater core (water pump, hoses, thermostat housing, radiator, overflow reservoir, sensors, etc.) Well I was lazy and wanted to change my thermostat (from the dreaded MotoRad FAIL-SAFE) but I didn't want to drain the whole Jeep. So I figured if I could drain just the amount of coolant that was in the radiator, it should be enough to bring the overall level down so that it didn't come gushing out when I pulled the thermostat.

So...

1) I found a little piece of yellow unused fuel hose lying around and stretched the tip out with a set of needle nose pliers and fitted it onto the little spout.

2) I set up a medium sized gray 3-5gal wash bucket to catch the coolant

3) I have small hands, so I was able to reach up and twist the little knob to let it flow out. It took about 7 minutes to drain completely. You could probably use a pair of needle-nose pliers to twist it if your hands can't get up in there.

When I pulled the thermostat, there was just a little trickle that came out. A lot less to clean up!

Although the 92+ XJs are an open system and pretty much bleed themselves, I still like to burp the air bubbles out as you refill the system.

Hope somebody finds this helpful!