fury

Ok, what kind of smart engineers and techs would fasten the darn bracket with two round-head bolts?! I'm trying to remove my ac condenser, but I can't pull it up from in front of the radiator (like the shop manual says), without first removing the dry catch can bracket. The problem is that it's fastened with 2 round-head bolts, which are rusted, to make matters worst. So the only solution I see is to actually remove my radiator. Anyone come across these round bolts???

radu_rd2

Removing the radiator is easy, draining the fluid is the only annoying part

You can also pop off the radiator from the top mounts and move it around a bit (without taking the hoses off or draining the fluid).. maybe that will give you the space you need

Blue Bomber

Getting the condenser off is a B*TCH! I just took mine off 2 weeks ago cause Im replacing it and I couldn't take it off. I had to cut the aluminum hose connected to it. My bolts were fused to the metal they went in to and so it was impossible to get them off. I had to cut it and replace a bunch of that aluminum tubing. 02.gif

Best of luck to you getting it off without damaging the alumining pipes.

fury

^^ For sure. The front aluminum tube (tube A??) that goes from the condenser to the can, was a B**CH to remove!!! I had to break/cut that aluminum 'bracket' that holds the tube and bolts to the dry-catch can. The good thing is that I'm replacing the condenser, not repairing or anything, so cutting the tube that comes out of it, was ok. The other tube that was hard to remove, was the large one in the engine bay that goes into the back of the condenser. I found that wiggling it while pulling it up, helped a lot.

Still, removing the condenser doesn't even compare to what I went through to remove the lower control arms. That was the most difficult thing I did on my tib ***BY FAR*** (no question about it); the main bolt seized to the sleeve. I have a thread about it. Jed knows all about removing the LCA wink1.gif

radu, that's what I did last night - I removed the radiator. Because of that, I took advantage of it and did some dirt/grime/rust cleanup fing02.gif