Assembling New Radiator and Heater Hose
Mark SimpsonDescription
Assembling a new radiator and heater hose can be difficult as the fresh rubber binds on fittings and resists sliding. Using a high-quality silicone lubricant can take the frustration out of assembly.
When installing hoses on your car, a lot of times you can run into trouble getting them to slide on just right. And the reason for that is generally the hoses are build to tight tolerance. Or even a little bit smaller than the fittings that they're intended to go on. Usually, have a couple of ways that you can ease them on a little bit better. And that's either using heat to warm up the rubber so it's a little softer to slide on or you can lubricate it. And what I like to use is just a silicone lubricant. And they use this for a variety of different things on the car. And you don't need a lot, just a little dab. You slide it around inside the fitting so you got some on all sides. And the hoses generally just slide right on now. We'll throw a clamp on that. Once we're happy with where that is, we've got our closed-clamp in the right spot, we're done.
Been installing hoses with lube since 1960. However, working on 2002 Ford F350 back in 2003 with a plastic tank aluminum radiator with large heavy-Duty hose clamps, got a major surprise. Lubed the hoses, slid them on, put on those heavy-duty hose clamps, gave the hose a little tug to check the tightness, and it pulled off with no effort at all. Replaced the clamps with stainless screw clamps with the same results. Replaced those with super-duty t-bolt clamps, and again the same results. Had to clean all of the lube off the hoses and connectors in order to get the hoses to stay on any of the fittings. This was the case with all of the hoses that were attached to plastic connectors. Have since discovered over the last 17 years that it is the same with nearly all plastic connectors. The pressure in the system would have blown the hoses off. Check your connections before you walk away. I tried to put in my website, but your system wouldn't accept it, www.agapeautomotive.com.