Radiator replacement - are you kidding me???

[mjgrantham]

So everywhere I read about removing the radiator on my 97 (including worthless Haynes manual) says a/c condenser can be left in car and radiator can be pulled up. Sounds easy, right? Bullcrap! The condenser line on passenger side and trans cooling lines on driver side have this thing locked in like a straight jacket. Spent hours in the cold trying to get this thing out. Now I'm so frustrated I'm about to just disconnect the lines from the condenser and lose my freon so I can get the radiator out. Has anyone replaced one of these without taking the condenser out with it?

[Crvett69]

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...4112942AAXfLkQ

not sure if that will help, sounds like you need to move the condensor but don't need to discharge it. did you remove the upper crossmember where the hood latch bolts?

[mjgrantham]

I did remove the crossmember. Thanks for the link, my car is the previous generation tho, different design. Disconnecting the condenser lines WILL release the freon, trying to avoid that. I'm gonna wait for it to warm up this afternoon and try to bend the trans cooling lines out of the way. It looks like there is a clamp holding one of the lines to the side of the radiator but I can't see well enough down there to determine how to detach it. Thanks again.

[mjgrantham]

Alright, I've figured this out. There is a clip attaching one of the trans cooling lines to the driver side of the radiator. This clip sits behind the nut that clips onto the lower tab of the radiator. I had to yank out that fibrous dirt shield to see down the side, then once I pulled the nut off the tab, the clip came free and viola! I was able to wiggle the radiator out. Hope this helps someone else out!