Radiator falling apart?

[gilesorton]

Wonderful 100 mile trip round Derbyshire today but I noticed half way round my radiator seemed to be disintegrating.

On both sides the decorative stainless end plates had worked loose, though both have stayed firmly attached to the plain black metal end pieces of the radiator behind. It is these  end pieces that have come unstuck. And though moving a little out of position they would not even when pulled a bit come away altogether.

Question is do they need to be brazed back together again. In which case presumably the decorative end plate has to be removed first (not immediately obvious to me how). Or could I get away with using Araldite to glue them back into place if they are not doing anything structural and just need to be held in place to look pretty.


A further concern is the question what happened to the radiator to cause both end plates to detach at the same time. It seems to be securely mounted on the rubber bobbins, todays ride was long (by my standards) and fairly sedate, so apart from the heat I cannot see what was different to cause this to happen.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[hendred]

You have been riding it too hard on a hot day!  Fun though.  I think I had the same problem about 8 years ago.  Just checked my end plates and they are fixed in place but move slightly if pulled.  I stuck them back in place with black silicon, I had some high temperature stove flue silicon on the shelf, used that and they haven't moved since.

[gilesorton]

Thanks again for the advice. I must get hold of some of that silicon, though interestingly now that the radiator has cooled right down the ends have tightened up again. Could it be that the problem is down to the middle parts of the radiator expanding  more in heat than the steel casings at the ends? One comfort from the experience this week was that even at the high temperatures then experienced the end casings remained attached, even if not as securely as I would have wished.

Do you or any others following this thread happen to know where one might source a replacement radiator if one were ever to be needed?

[Arthur Farrow]

Graham Moag makes Scott radiators and has I believe made Silk ones

02843 724973 (Co Down) [e-mail]

[gilesorton]

Thanks Arthur and Hendred. I have gone with the high temperature black silicon approach for now. Hopefully that will keep the end plates in place for the foreseeable.

I took the opportunity to paint the radiator - I had some Hammerite Matt Black high temperature paint on the shelf, and also used it to touch up some gaps in the black paint on the engine. It looks OK on the radiator, but has come out too matt on the engine - or at least more Matt than the rest of the black paint on the engine. Can anyone advise me what black paint (presumably semi- matt?) I should be using on the engine, and if I do that should it be the same on the radiator?

[Smokey_Paul]

Hundred beat me too it I see, absolutely high temperature silicon to retain the plates and also used for the chrome covers