Lucky So Far, Except For...

August 20, 2016, 10:01:24 am

Something to check / band-aid ahead of time...

Headed home from AK trip (coming up on 5 months now), in our 06 Endura gasser - no issues except replacement of chassis battery in Fairbanks (5 1/2 years old). I-40 in Barstow-Dagget-Needles was 103-105 degrees, and fan clutch engaged at anything less than 60 mph, although temp gauge stayed at 210 with little variance. Got squeezed down to single lane, east of Needles, in a construction zone - traffic heavy - and was unable to avoid a 3-4" deep pothole; hell of a bang on the right front wheel. Shortly thereafter I got a whiff of hot coolant - immediately thought of radiator problems talked about on this forum, but "hoped" it was someone ahead of us (couldn't get off anyway). It stopped - and for 12-15 miles there was no odor (kept checking gauge). After a long haul up a hill the odor started again - gauge had climbed off of 210 and was racing up; fortunately there was a wide paved shoulder to pull off and shut down. Steam out right-front. Pulled the hood, and the problem was immediately obvious - that 1/2-5/8" hose from top-right on the radiator, over to the reservoir/recovery tank was disconnected from the radiator ("oh-s__t" - the nipple broke when we hit the pothole!). Well it wasn't the nipple, it was the connector - designed for the factory assembler - it's a push/snap-on arrangement - NO CLAMP! (Gee - might have saved 30 seconds on the assembly-line...) I pushed it back on - wiggled/tugged on it - even grabbed it with my Gerber-Tool to try to pull it off, but it stayed tight. Four gallons of water (out of 5.8 total) later we were back on the road for Williams, AZ - noted that with the highly diluted anti-freeze, it ran cooler, according to the gauge. In Williams, I siphoned out a gallon from the recovery tank, and replaced it with 100% DEXCOOL (Prestone), and will do a full flush/replacement when we get back to Florida. I also affixed three wire-ties across the top of the elbow where the hose connects to the radiator, to hopefully prevent it from happening again before we get home - and will replace the hose with new, more traditional clamp, as well as a new pressure cap. All-in-all, I'm guessing the system was at/over the 16 psi of the cap (from the heat), and hitting that pothole just overcame the connector. Can't gripe a lot about the rig - it's taken some hell-acious beatings in BC/YT/AK, as well as the entirety of the northern segment of CA-1, down to San Francisco (something like a paved-over logging road for the most part). (Am "knocking" repeatedly on the wooden dinette table the wife made - as I write this.)