[dnastrau]

Greetings:

I recently replaced the radiator on my '96 GC 4.0 with a Visteon aftermarket unit. I found that the directions in the FSM as well as the Haynes manual were lacking in a couple of ways:

Haynes says that you do not need to remove the belt driven fan and shroud to get the radiator out. Baloney. I found that removing them made life a lot easier.

Neither manual said anything about removing the battery and battery tray to get the radiator out. After spending some time trying to get the old rad out I found it to be impossible with the steering box on one side and the battery box on the other. After removing the battery and battery box the radiator came out fairly easily.

May your radiator replacement be uneventful...

Andrew S.

 

[Compstall]

Instead of messing with the battery, I took the mount bolts out of the steering box and slid the steering box up on the yoke. That worked for me.

 

[besthaticouldo]

man i gotta do this on my v8 soon...not looking forward to it.

 

[papabear]

Just put new radiator in my 96 -v.8 didnt do either 1 and it came out. I did remove the fan and shroud .

 

[dnastrau]

Interesting Papabear - on the 4.0 I did not see any way to get the radiator out without pulling the battery box. Maybe because the V8 may be shorter (?)

Wow Compstall - Moving the steering box back on the shaft sounds a lot harder than removing the battery box... That only took me about 10 minutes...

Andrew S.

 

[RockZJ]

Where in Pike are you man? I live up in Dingmans! Strange to see another local on the boards!

RockZJ

 

[GreenZJ]

5.9 FTW, Ive got an electric fan, so that shits got tons of room

 

[Compstall]

Wow Compstall - Moving the steering box back on the shaft sounds a lot harder than removing the battery box... That only took me about 10 minutes...

Andrew S.

Takes the same amount of time to do what I did. Only 3 bolts came out and that was it.

 

[RockZJ]

This is strange because on my 97 4.0 I didnt have any of these issues. I simply took the fan out, fan shroud, radiator support, hoses, and pulled the radiator. Not sure why you guys had problems but the V8 was the same way.

RockZJ

 

[RrCoX22]

wow... i took it out of the top with ease. only unbolted the fan shroud and let it hand on the fan and the radiator slid right out of the top

...guess I'm lucky

 

[upcountry96]

Just pulled mine out in a gas station and didn't remove my fan, battery box or grill. Did take the shroud off, though. Took top support off and fed extension through grill to socket to remove a/c condenser bracket bolts, removed hoses and tranny cooler lines, then had to "unstick" condenser from radiator and it lifted right out. I have the 5.2 by the way. All in all, about 45 minutes, in the dark.

 

[2GRND4U]

just did mine...after wrestling the rotted out rad, "trimmed" the shroud incase i ever have to change it again. but really, not to bad of a job

 

[blackbeauty]

removing the battery and tray is deff not nessary on any zj take the fan and shroud as one unit and then the rest will follow with ease id rather change the radiator than change the water pump mine a was c u next tuesday becuase it was stuck to the block with so much corrosion that i had to chip at it abviously the p.o. was an idiot and doesnt know the meaning of a gasket

 

[joshman95zj]

removing the battery and tray is deff not nessary on any zj

X2 i've had the radiator out of both my 4.0 zj's about three times each and have never taken off the fan,battery, or steering. i can replace one in about an hour now.