Clark C20B Replacement Radiator

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wwattson
1010 crawler
1010 crawler
Posts: 499
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:12 pm
Location: West Bend, WI

Clark C20B Replacement Radiator

Post by wwattson » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:14 pm

This may be a bit out there because I have no idea how many of you might have such a thing. I recently picked up a Clark C20B (MHE-192 military designation) forklift off eBay to help me with my tractor projects and for unloading the odd pallet of cement, feed, and shavings. My goal was have less than $1000 in the whole thing after resolving any issues. Purchase price was $500 so I was off to a good start.

Going over it when I got it home I found that the master cylinder for the brakes was shot (no biggy), radiator was completely shot, water pump was bad, and the muffler wasn't much of a muffler.

Most parts are easily available in the aftermarket for a pretty reasonable amount but the radiator was a different matter. Clark had a replacement for $1400.

I picked up a radiator book and started searching for a comparible size and shape in an auto aftermarket radiator and after a day of looking found that the 71-73 Ford Pinto radiator looked pretty close and bought one for $117 new. The inlet and out hose connections were smaller so a couple of reducing sleeves adapted those.

The thing that was really cool was that I took the two angle mounting brackets off the old radiator by cold chiseling the spot welds and attached them at the same angle to the Pinto radiator with silicon rubber. It fit perfectly like it was made for it.

It seems like these forklift are common as the government bought so many of them and they've found there way out through the surplus market. Hope this tip helps somebody along the way. The recore cost on mine would have been $400 plus shipping so this ended up being the cheapest option by far.
Bill Wattson

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