My upper hose spigot has a crack where it is soldered to the tank. With the tank out and dry I cleaned it well with a stainless brush and attempted to solder it up. Seemed like it was hard to get the solder to seal the crack, contamination from the inside (which I am unable to clean) I expect. Used plenty of past flux. I eventually thought I had it but it's still leaking. Any tricks to this procedure?
I lately have been using an electric iron, 250 watts?, and make sure it's 50/50 or 60/40 solder. the 95/5 don't work well for me on radiators. No flow out.
remove the spigot, and clean everything? but don't listen to me, I can't fix a radiator to save my life. And it's getting hard to find someone locally who can/will do it. Good luck!
I did rad work in my body shop . Your cracked solder joint needs to be removed, and retinned. heat the cracked joint and pull the hose neck out, heat the tank and wipe away the old solder with a rag , add some flux, reheat and re wipe adding fresh solder to tin. replace the neck into the tank and re solder.
The secret is to get everything clean and tinned, then when you get the right amount of heat the solder runs right into the joint. Done right it actually soaks up the solder. Preparation, the right amount of heat and a little flux.
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