I've been fighting this thing for a week now. Can't seem to get it out.


I removed the 6 bolts on the sides, even the 2 on the bottom of the support, this thing will not come out.

I can move it around, back and forth, even slightly side to side, but up is totally out of the question. I even got a large screwdriver (padded side) and tried to pry it out of the mount, to no avail.

What's the secret?
Please?

 

I feel your pain.. I cant get my radiator in! lol it was out when I got the car and the lower outlet hangs up on the end of the frame..

 

Are you trying to take the rad. support or the rad. out?

 

I had the same problem. Took me a long time playing with it. The fan shroud has to come out. It's very tight.The bolt on the radiator support at the bottom is too long. I cut it a little shorter just to make things easier when I had to put the shroud back together. I put a cardboard to cover the rad. fins. The radiator came out lifting the drivers side up first. The lower rad outlet has to clear the control arm. So you'll be pulling it out at an angle. Doing it by myself was a challenge. I had A/c so it's alot more harder. Some might say that it was a piece of cake. Not for me. Hope this help alittle. Will check back tomorrow. Tony

 

Do you have the fan shroud out?

It's been a while since I worked on mine, but I do remember that it's impossible to get the radiator out without pulling the shroud first.
The shroud is a PITA in it's own rite too.
The easiest way I found to get the shroud in and out is to unbolt the passenger side upper upper A-arm and swing it back out of the way. Just make sure you keep track of shims so you can put them back the same way when you are done.

 

first, it's not plain if you are trying to remove the radiator or the core support.

if it's the radiator:
1.remove the fanblade
2. remove the radiator/shroud brackets. pull the shroud towards the motor and hang it onto the WP pulley to keep it out of the way. it will NOT come out until the radiator is removed so don't try.
3.disconnect and unbolt the radiator (previously drained of course)
4.remove the top two bolts of the core support on each side and just loosen the lower 3rd bolt at the bottom of each side but don't remove.
4.lean the core support as forward towards the front of the car as possible until it just hits the headlight actuators. This will give you room to slide the radiator out.
5. remove the radiator. You usually have to lift it up from the drivers side first if I remember to give a little extra room for the lower hose housing to clear the A-arm but I might be mistaken and have that reversed, it might be the passenger side first. Sorry, it's 2 years since I last pulled mine.

 

When I was removing my radiator support, I wound up putting the floor jack under the front crossmember and lifting the front of the car just enough to take the weight of the car off of the ground. This allowed the frame/body to flex just enough to remove the support. I did the same thing when going back in.

Just doing this is enough reason to add the VBP strut bar to reduce this flexing.

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far, but I think I've done those!
I'm trying to get the radiator and shroud both out so I can get the upper A-arms out to replace them with the VBP kit.

The car is up on jackstands.
I've drained (most of) the radiator (the petcock is frozen, so all the fluid I can get out of the lower hose outlet is out).

I removed all 6 of the shroud bolts and the 2 at the bottom, I can move the whole assembly around, and I can slightly move the shroud away from the radiator, but not far enough to get either one of them to slide up.

I've tried to pull both together, tried to pull the shroud first, and tried to pull the radiator first.

On previous cars, I just cut the shroud in half, but I don't want to do that with this one knowing that someone else may need this, so I'm trying to limit the damage I'm causing.


It seems that it's all so tight in there, and it has to come in/out in a specific order, and right now I'm not sure what that order is. Of course, it doesn't help that I'm working by myself either.

Thanks for the help so far, I'll keep checking this for more words of wisdom from you all!

 

After I had removed 3+3 screws on the sides and those 2 on the bottom IIRC I removed mechanical fan. This enabled shroud to move towards engine and radiator and it's shroud had a bit more room. It was still tight fit and it would have been better to have an extra pair of hands to help on the other side of the car.

 

read what I posted earlier!
you can NOT get the shroud out until AFTER the radiator is out, it just ain't gonna happen.

remove the fan and move the shroud back to the motor out of the way. unbolt and tilt the core support forward. this gives you the room you need to lift the radiator out.
Unless you are forgetting a bolt somewhere it will come out - ut may take some finessing to get the lower hose housing past the A-arm but it will come out.

 

As I said before, On my 73 I found it impossible to remove the radiator with the shroud still in place. I also found that it is impossible to remove the fan shroud unless the passenger side A-arm is disconnected and swung back out of the way.

Since you are changing the front suspension anyway go ahead and unbolt both upper A-arms. You don't even need to disconnect the upper ball joints yet, just removed the two nuts that connect the cross shafts to the frame, then lightly knock the bolts through with a hammer. Then the A-arms can just be swung backwards out of the way. It will give you just enough room to get the shroud out through the top, then once the shroud is out of the way the radiator will come out too.

I had to replace the fan shroud on my 73 when I first got it because the previous owner had cut it in half, and the lower half was missing.
Four years ago when I built and installed the 383 I also replaced the radiator and core support in it too. The procedure I described above is the only way I could find get the fan out (or into) my 73.

Good luck.

 

I've done it a number of times. Mine's a 79. Left the hood on. Pulled the fan and moved shroud back away from radiator to make it easier. Make sure you did connect the radiator hoses and the upper and lower tranny cooler lines. Sounds stupid, but they are easy to forget.

 

I forgot to mention that I have already removed the fan. I can't get the upper A-arms out because the forward bolts and edge of the arm itself are blocked by the shroud. No maneuvering room.

I can't pull the shroud backward, away from the radiator enough to maneuver either one of them separately. The radiator is kept in place by the lower outlet getting caught on the shroud, the shroud is caught by the upper inlet and both forward A-arm bolts.

I've tried pushing both of them together from underneath even, but it doesn't budge. It's like there is something else holding everything down that I can't see. I've tried prying the rad away from the lower u-shaped mounts, no joy there either.

Oh, and no cooling lines either, I have a manual transmission! (but you're right, sometimes the simple stuff gets you!)

This is sooooo fr'king frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You should be able to get a wrench on the forward A-arm nut and turn it a little bit at a time. IIRC you should be able to turn the nut about 1/8 turn, then you will have to flip the wrench over and do another 1/8 turn. Rinse, repeat.
If you have AC it helps tremendously to unbolt the compressor and move it back out of the way too.

Takes pics of the progression of your bloody knuckles for us.

 

If you dont have A/C then you can knock, push the radiator support toward the front. This should give you alittle room. The shroud is going to have to be forced out. Put a cardboard to protect the fins. All the problem is on the passenger side. The A arm is the culprit, but I didn't have to remove it to get the shroud and radiator in. It was a mother. Spent alot of time trying to put it all back together only to find out the new radiator support was welded wrong and threw everything off by 1/2 inch. 1/2 inch in a tight *** car is a big deal. The shroud and radiator has to come out in an angle. It won't come straight up. Drivers' side comes up first and going in, the pass. side goes down first. Believe me, I've spent at least a month or better ( not all day ) messing with it. You try so many things to get it out and when you do, you kind of forget what you did to get it out. When your frustrated, take a time out and collect yourself. I even vow to get rid of the vette once everything was put back together. That's how Pissed I was. My wife can tell how mad I was. Lots of foul language coming from the garage. As I said in my earlier post, I cut those two long threaded fixed bolt on the U that supports the bottom of the radiator and holds the bottom of the fan shroud because it made it easier to pull the shroud over it. It's way to long anyways.

 

I have a 70 Big block manual tranny.
I just removed my radiator and had it recored.
This is what I had to do to finally get it out.
Remove the hood.
Remove the radiator hold down brackets.
Remove all the bolts that hold the support surround.
Cut the support rod that goes from the bottom of the surround to the nose of the car. Clearly - that rod was put there only to annoy us - you don't need it!
Now slide the radiator and the support surround forward and that will give you the clearance you need to raise the radiator out.
Now you can easily lift out the surround and give it a coat of paint.
Re assembly is easy once you bite the bullet and take all of that stuff off.

 

The rod that goes from the bottom of the nose bumper bracket through the lower radiator support. J. Peter brought up an important rod/bolt to unbolt. Can't slide the support back if that's still bolted.

 

Finally got it! I ended up really forcing the upper A-arm over (and with that front rod removed, I had just enough room to push the arm over the studs! Once those were out of the way, then I pushed from the bottom, the entire assembly up and out.

The main problem was that the radiator was literally 'stuck' from the seals between the shroud and the rad.

Anybody have a good lead on new seals?? I guess they come as a set, eh?


Oh well, it's out, the front suspension is finally all out, the steering is almost out (need to get the PS lines off the pump, get the steering box off, and figure out how to get the pitman arm off the steering box.)

I'm planning on going this route: http://www.corvettesteering.com/corvemt4.jpg

from Tom's Steering. Anybody else have this box? Any recommendations, one way or the other? I was thinking about the Steeroids kit, but Tom's is half the price, and less fabrication I think.


At any rate, thanks for the inputs folks! I appreciate the extra "ooomph" you gave me to get this done!


Anybody know if DeWitt's is going to have another sale anytime soon?

 

Dr. Rebuild for the radiator and core support seals

 

Thanks Barry! I forgot about the Doc!!

Going on now...