I think that the brake-bleeder style fitting requires a receptacle
that is machined to fit the angle of the bottom of the fitting, and
has a "blind" tapped hole in which the threads turn above that
machined bottom surface, and actually the setup is a little more
complicated than that. But it allows loosening the fitting off the
seat to allow brake fluid to pass through the hole in the fitting and
out the top of the fitting, or valve.

The radiator, if I'm not wrong, does have threads but it doesn't have
the seat for a fitting to stop against (and the brake fitting is the
wrong size thread. You could probably use any number of pitcock-style
valves as the brass ones you used to see on british car radiator
drains that could be adapted with a die to cut threads to match the
vanagon radiator. Then you could just turn the lever on top of the
valve to release air and not mess with the silly bolt that's in there
now.

Anyone know of anything that would work better that would be easier
to acquire than a british car part? And who in their right mind would
want to trust their vanagon to such anyway? Diesel owners probably
know that one of the most likely places for the little 1600 engine to
leak is the intermediate shaft seal. Next time you pull the flange
off yours to replace the seal, see if it doesn't say "Made in
England." Weird that there's one English part on our VWs!

Jim

On Jan 8, 2007, at 7:19 PM, Mike Stainbrook wrote:

> Hi all-I have checked the archives,found zero,my question is,would a
> bleeder valve(say one for the brake system,if has 8mm threads)work
> as a
> replacement for the bolt in the radiator? would be MUCH easier to
> deal with
> bleeding air from system...Idid try the KE people,no help as I
> don't have a
> subie...Thanks, Mike
>