Radiator Cleaning Tool

Radiator Cleaning Tool TRACTORS Miscellaneous 27-5-37 At least half the work of thoroughly cleaning out a radiator is removing it from the vehicle so you can get at it. Harvey Wasson of Perry, Missouri found "a way around that," by making a tool that allows him to do a good job while it's still on the vehicle. Wasson operates a local radiator shop and has plenty of experience bringing radiators back into tiptop shape. The tool consists of a 30 in.-long piece of flexible 3/8-in. hydraulic hose with a 2 1/2-in. long piece of 3/8-in. copper water pipe at one end. The open end is soldered closed. Wasson then welded a flat washer on the side of the copper pipe and drilled three very small holes through the washer and the pipe. "The holes are bigger than a toothpick and smaller than a matchstick," Wasson explains. "They cause the water to come out at a very high pressure. The flat washer is necessary to slide the tool in next to the radiator without damaging the fins." At the other end of the hydraulic hose, Wasson installed an adapter to fit a garden hose and an on/off valve. "I've used this tool on radiators in tractors, combines, bulldozers and cars. It works well because it pushes the water straight forward onto the radiator fins so they don't bend like they would if you tried doing this with a regular 400-lb. pressure hose where you would have to spray the water at quite an angle because you couldn't reach in properly," he says. "I wash one side of the radiator, and then go around and do the other side. This tool was cheap and easy to make." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harvey Wasson, Wasson's Service, Box 56, Perry, Mo. 63462 ph 573 565-2813 (shop), 573-565-2752 (home).

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