Confused About Thermostat Housing

[rbbailey]

I'm putting the thermostat housing back together. When I pulled it apart, there was no thermostat in there -- ? (I guess that explains why it runs cool till the engine gets under load.)

But now I'm putting it back together and I'm the thermostat comes nowhere near fitting the housing. It lays in there just as it should, but the top piece, triangular in shape with the hose fitting off the top, is about 1/2 inch from fitting tight against the lower half of the housing.

I'm looking at the Green Bible diagram, I have all the pieces, in order, right side up, etc... what gives?

[SafeAirOne]

What year/engine?

[Wallace]

rbbailey,

It would help if you put your model/year/engine in your signature or profile. Then we could be more accurate with an answer.

Are you sure that you have the correct thermostat? The correct thermostat for a SII/SIII petrol (available from our hosts) is very different than the generic thermostat that is sold through NAPA/AutoZone and supposedly fits - but doesn't. The correct thermostat is not flat but has a 1/2 inch collar around the perimeter that holds it in the correct position within the housing.

[rbbailey]

yep, got the correct one.

Thanks for responding on this. I figured out what the problem was.

Since the last bloke in there didn't see fit to put a thermostat in place, the area had simply filled up with corrosion. The small edge that the thermostat sits on was filled in with a nice, even layer of corrosion that I ground off with a Dremel tool. It now fits.