Gotta vouch for the 7266 radiator hose! I picked one up and it worked just fine. A little dab of vaseline solved the 1.5" versus 1.75" issue. But mine is still leaking. Darn! I know it's the thermostat housing. It's old, and I may not have filed it as flat as I thought. I think Galvin's carries a replacement. Think I'll give a shout during the week to see if he still has any. But 7266 works like a charm. On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 2:56 PM, tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Funny, this happening after Joe's post about his lucky find with the > radiator hose. I'm driving on a very old radiator hose, it's actually > leaking at the thermostat end (more likely the rusted housing adapter). > > BUT! I persisted at NAPA, and by simply walking through the aisles with an > old rotten hose I found one that is exactly correct in all dimensions -- > except one. But it works. Did someone else mention this part, on this list, > long ago? > > NAPA 7266 is perfect except that the thermostat housing end is 1 1/2" and > the housing wants it to be 1 3/4" -- but it stretches easily and in a > non-harmful way. Check out the photos here: > > http://wps.com/temp/Early-American-upper-radiator-hose-NAPA-7266/ > > A "real" solution is to make a new thermostat neck to accept 1.5" hoses. > It's not even a big deal, and most of them are rotted anyways. I have a > spare rusty one; I may chop down the neck, insert 1.5" exhaust pipe, weld it > in, and glpytal the thing so it won't rust. Someone should make these! > > (The early american thermostat is NOT the same as the universal style used > in all later AMCs, Ford, GM, etc. It's larger in diameter.) > > > > The poetic justice part: It's an AMC Spirit hose, so in fact there really is > a reason it fits; though every thing in the car changed from 1952 to 1979, > it did so incrementally, and the relationship of the radiator to engine > stayed the same. It's easy to see how: > > 50's nash: random radiator and themostat placement. > 60's: new 232 engine; nash radiator style (top neck on left) > 70's: new chassis, AMC used the same radiator design. > > > -- > All your arguments are invalid. > Enjoy your unstable system. _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com