I killed two radiators, one from backing up while stuck on a brush pile, and the other from hitting a Blaster that hit a tree in front of him. The first one put a couple of nasty gouges through the core. The second incident broke the plastic mount off of the tank. My dealer still had my first one on the junk pile out back and I was able to uncrimp the tank from it and change it onto the one with the good core. I only say this as I would check to see if you can find a trashed radiator and do the same. Take your time and it's as good as new. It was the dealers suggestion that I try this first, before I bought another. Although he lost a radiator sale, he's very big into keeping people happy.

 

I had puttied up the break on my radiator (around the mounting tab) with JB Weld. I took it to the dealer to replace the head gasket and inspect the cylinder and piston. Rather than take the bottom guard off to find the lower end drain plug, he somehow lifted the whole quad to tip it and pour the antifreeze out! This little operation cracked the JB Weld. I brought the thing home, and used a chisel to take off the JB Weld - it came off pretty easy. I bought some stuff called "plastic weld" - a two part epoxy that smells horrible, but seemes to have repaired the crack.
Anyway, I put the radiator back on, and the head gasket is leaking, so back it goes Monday. I think he said he checked the head for warpage.... I'd take the head off and reseat the gasket myself, but I don't know what the torque setting is. Any body have that info for a 99 400 Scrambler?

I had considered uncrimping the plastic from the core, but was afraid I would not be able to get a tight seal when re-crimping. I was also concerned about snapping the tabs off. I will keep in mind that this little operation is posssible.



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Hawk - stock (for now) 99 Scrambler 400