You may have to just chisel it in four pieces, Thumper. Personally, I'd heat that sum beach up with a torch after chiseling it and then take the chisel to it again. Pry it open and off you go. You can always touch up a wheel with a little paint, if that's a big deal to you. I'm at the stage in my life that I don't give a crap how my car looks as long as it's in tip top mechanical shape. Have you checked the lugs on the other 3 wheels? If they don't budge with a tire tool, I'd go ahead and start soaking them with Kroil. Best dang rust remover I've ever run across. You're eventually going to have to get the other 3 wheels off for brake work anyway.

 

Working on exactly that:drilling and chiseling. I have four new lug nuts on it already, and five new on the other wheels.

 

Got it off. Bigger hammer and longer chisel. Then I went back to the loud noise at startup. I had my wife start it while I watched under the hood. The radiator shook back and forth when the engine fired up and that was the noise. The radiator mounts are good. The top engine mount is new, the trans mount below the engine is goid. Where is the third mount?

 

Also, I pinpointed the fluttering noise at startup - radiator flutters back and forth when engine starts. New top motor mount, good center transmission mount, good radiator mounts. Where is other transmission mount? O8 3.5 AWD

 

Moved last post to here. Much easier to keep track of issues if we keep them in one thread.

 

Have you checked to see if the radiator support that goes into the frame is not misaligned or cracked? I would start where the motion is actually occurring on this one. It may have no lateral movement by hand but it may be getting thrown upwards enough that it is no longer resting in the mount hole, waving around, and then reseating itself. Just be gentle it is likely all dry-rotted plastic at this point and if it has been a shaken around that much, it is probably even more brittle.

 

Is there any way you can post a video of the radiator while it's moving?

 

sounds like a plan when the rain is gone and it warms up a little

 

I suppose so

 

I can move the radiator up and down by hand from the bottom. The bottom radiator mounts are worn out. Thanks, Derf!