Allegro Club International

[Dave Coates]

Not sure how useful this will be, but having bought an "allegro" radiator cheaply of ebay, that turned out to be an early metro one, I decided to see if it could be made to fit. It can.....very easily.
My local radiator place charged me £8 to solder in a pipe for the header tank, and through in a plastic retaining clip for the cooloing fan switch. Said switch was a fiver(new) and to make it all fit I drilled the top and bottom mounting plates off the old rad and pop riveted then on to the metro one, saving the head-ache of drilling new holes slam panel and holes for cooling fan bracket..Hope this helps some-one.



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A good bolt is better than a bad weld....

[Colin T]

Maybe there are two types of early Metro rads (different suppliers?). The other type is same as the Feb '81 aluminium Allegro rads with plastic end caps and the same fan mounts, but the expansion take off is solid but in place so the end of it just has to be drilled through and the RH top fixing is in a slightly different place, so a new hole is needed in the slam panel (or the top plate could be swapped as you've done here).
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Hell has frozen over...... the car formally known as 'Heap' is back on the road!

[Katie Dibsdall]

Hi

As Colin mentioned there is a second version, I have a question does anyone a good high temperature sealant to seal the thermostatic switch in the radiator? The original Metro switch was replaced with an Allegro one which lasted for about 3 years and has now failed but the new replacement leaks around the new seal. An early attempt with plumber Mait was a disaster!

We ended up with an extra hole in the body work to fit the Metro radiator.

Thanks
Katie

[Colin T]

I've used Loctite Premium sealant (from Halfords) which did a very good job - that was when my new switch failed, and it was very difficult to remove it because the sealant was very good (but expensive) and I used lots of it.

The problem you have is the retaining ring, which bends and so doesn't push the switch in hard against the rubber as it should.
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Hell has frozen over...... the car formally known as 'Heap' is back on the road!

[Katie Dibsdall]

Hi Colin

It has been suggested that a new retaining ring be fashioned from aluminium or something similar. The current ring is a bit too flexible.

Katie

[Merlyn Peter]

Hi David,
I got that same rad for new with a take-off for the expansion bottle. They don't have a baffler inside them and so wouldn't work with my series 3. Hence I have all the hoses and a new rad for sale. I got the old one recored for £120. Did you sought out the problem?
MerlynX
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Merlyn Peter
South London Permaculture
+44(0)7530223360
02032890203