Hose Clamps...

[Archive]

Gentlemen, the next time you are under the hood check the constant tension hose clamp at the radiator overflow bottle. Squeeze the clamp release prongs between your fingers to see if it is broken. I found yet another broken clamp at the campground this past weekend. It was on a '97 Ram parked next to me. This is a 5 cent part that is well worth checking. Thanks.

 

[BK]

TopFuel, thanks... And that brings up a thought a question.....



I've read that some suggest staying with these PIA clamps and not use the basic worm screw band clamps.

Why. . vibration?



I had one big PIA getting the ones off on the lower radiator. My pliers made just for constant pressure band clamps isn't large enough to deal with whats on the radiator hoses. I've found that snapon sells a larger version of my medium sized pliers... . but can't accuratly find them on snapon's site and haven't been able to find the snapon truck lately.



Since I last changed my coolant I've had the worms screw style clamps on without a problem.



Any ideas? Thoughts?

 

[Archive]

BK, I haven't seen any failures with the upper or lower radiator hose clamps. The clamps I've been finding fractured are the small black (seemingly brittle) ones that secure the overflow hose to the translucent radiator catch bottle.

This clamp is installed to prevent the cooling system from ingesting air instead of siphoning coolant back to the radiator filler neck during engine cooldown. I prefer constant tension clamps that use a small coil spring to maintain the clamping force.