[Amc-list] American radiator hose and poetic justice

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

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.
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