Tonight is THE night

Originally Posted by Camel

You can't buy experience.....but I am learning.

Thats the way to do it mate!

I don't want to give you the wrong impression, I'm not an (absolute) idiot!

I've just never got into the mechic side before. Just paid the garage to service it etc. But I got a strange satisfaction of seeing the terrible condition of the old plugs, and seeing the new shiny ones go in. Having the knowledge of actually seeing them being replaced is stragely satisfying!

[yorkie_chris]

The front plug is loads easier if you unbolt the horn, also IMO use copperslip on the plug threads.

Bit late now like...

I always drop the coolant and take the rad off to get at the front plug.
A. gives you loads of room
B. Means you wont accidentally damage the rad.
C. It's not a bad idea to know the coolant is up to date

Originally Posted by shifter

I always drop the coolant and take the rad off to get at the front plug.
A. gives you loads of room
B. Means you wont accidentally damage the rad.
C. It's not a bad idea to know the coolant is up to date

Very good point! Will do that next time.

It's not hard to drop the coolant, take the rad cap off, and undo one of the bolts on the water pump (I think it's the one that stands out proud of the rest) and out roars the coolant.
It's best to flush the system through, I usually just stick a garden hose in the top of the rad and let it flow through until clean water come out.
Thinking about it I don't actually remove the rad completely. I drop the coolant, and just take the bottom hose off. Then remove the horn. This allows you to move the rad a lot further away. Then you don't have to disturb the fan connections etc. It gives you a lot more room than if you leave the hose connected. Tip the rad up then tighten one of the bolts to hold it there.
If you have changed the coolant recently, you can always catch it in something clean, and poor it back in when you've finished