Tighten Steam Radiator Tie Rods ?

Live dangerously!

Well, no.  On the other hand, if the tie rods are loose enough so that they wiggle, there is the possibility that a section joint could open a little and drip.



However, Rod is right -- this is definetly softly softly catchee money territory.  I have broken my share of tie rods (and it is a nuisance!) -- but always on getting the nut loose, not tightening them.  As you suggest, get the paint off (but don't round the flats on the nut doing that!) then use penetrating oil.  Patiently.  It may take a couple of days (really) before it does any good.  Perhaps most important, do not use a wrench.  Use a nut driver with a good size screwdriver type handle (use a backup one on the other end -- yes, you need to get both ends clean -- sorry) and try turning the nut both ways.  As it starts to back off, remember to turn it only about a half turn off, then on a quarter turn, and off a half, and so on -- just as though you were using a finicky little die on something (which is really what you are doing -- cleaning the threads).  Take it all the way off, and oil the threads.  Then put it on finger tight, take it off, clean the threads with a towel, then oil again and put it on again.  Just so it seats, and then no more than one flat farther.  That's ample.



You may want to recheck the torque after a couple of heating cycles.



Good luck!

tick tick tick...

It's not really that bad.  The problem is that the tie rods themselves are rather small diameter, and it's all too easy to twist them off -- usually at the first thread.  But yes, a small torque wrench would work, or just delicate hands for that matter.  I'm not a great one for the 'if a little hammer is good, a bigger one is better' approach to anything!  (although I do have a 4' pipe wrench -- but that's another story).



If the tie rods are tight now -- that is to say, they don't wiggle at all -- then there is no use trying to tighten them further.  Tie rods cannot be used to tighten up a loose radiator -- they aren't strong enough.  What they do do -- most ingeniously -- is to expand a little slower than a heating radiator does, and contract a little faster, thus keeping the radiator tight at all times once it has been tightened in some other way.  But if they are more than one flat tighter than finger tight now, they're tight enough -- and the trolley car effect is coming from something else!

The tube and column ones always seem to clang.

Just from the "few" I have seen,  they always rattle if any thing larger than a mouse walks past them. I am guessing this was a reason they are less popular for a radiator choice. If it is not leaking leave them be! If they do leak it probably wll not help tightening them any ways.