need help bad

[Barry K.]

'65 Vette with a stock L76 motor

went to drain the coolant so I can pull the intake off the motor. only ever loosened the drain plug once before since i owned the car and it wasn't a problem.
Todat I went to do it and the little wingnut is just freespinning on the threads of the draincock so it won't open to drain coolant.

above the wing on the threads there is another nut tightened against the bottom of the radiator. Can i just loosen that nut to drain the coolant or if I do that will I not have the abilty to retighten it back again because the threaded stud will be loose and I can't reach inside the radiator to hold it to tighten?? Is there a tackwelded nut on the inside of the radiator that the threads are going into so that I'll be able to tighten the drain plug up again?

sorry, I'm new at trying to work on my own car so I'm just learning and this may be a really dumb question but I just don't know the answer. I hestitate loosening anything when I don't have access to the other side of it not knowing how it's held in place.

I hope this question even made sense

[Geoff C.]

what specific kind of radiator?

If ya don't know. Shoot a 640x480 jpeg, not a 2400x1600 wide screen drive in movie preview.

Geoffrey Coenen

[Barry K.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

I don't know what brand replacement radiator it is - it was already in the car when I purchased it.

I can't post pics on here currently.............. sorry!

all i can say it that I believe it's some type of aluminum repro unit that had a Harrison sticker put on it and the proper stamped number and stamped datecode on it

I know, not much help

[Joe L.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

Barry-----

You can remove the petcock at the radiator by unscrewing the fitting. Be careful, if the radiator is aluminum (which is what the car originally had installed), the petcock fitting will be aluminum, too. These are easily stripped. Since you're minus the "wings" on the petcock now anyway, I would recommend using a 6 point socket or 6 point box wrench to remove the fitting.

If the radiator is aluminum, then you want to replace the petcock with a special aluminum one as available from many of the Corvette vendors.

[Barry K.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

Thanks Joe

yep, I figure I'll have to replace the draincock. it is an aliminum draincock unit so that's what I'll order.
The wings are still on there - they just are useless as it spins freely so I'll have to get in there with an open-end wrench

Barry

[William C.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

use a wheel or side cutters to cut the wings off so a six point socket can be used. Aluminum radiators are to expensive to take a chance with.

[Barry K.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

will try that, thanks for the suggestion Bill

[Cary Lewis]

Re: need help bad

DocRebuild has your part, number 1219058, good luck!

[Barry K.]

Re: what specific kind of radiator?

I got the coolant drained finally
ended up clamping a pair of visegrips over the center area of the wings, compressing them tighter against the threads than turned the visegrips. It was enough to work and let it start draining so now the radiator is empty.
Definately destroyed the end of the draincock that way but hey, I obviously needed another one anyway so no loss there. Besides, the wings ended up breaking off so now it will be easy to use a socket to get the rest of the draincock off. It wasn't my preferred method of getting the coolant drained but it worked and no damage to the radiator.

thanks all