'67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

[Patrick T.]

I've developed a leak in one or both heater hoses where they enter the firewall. This didn't start happening until I installed a new battery a few weeks ago and had to disconnect the heater hoses to facilitate the battery installation.

The hoses and clamps are new, the heater core is original. What baffles me is that I've had a heater core go bad on me long time ago and antifreeze was running down the console and dripping on the passenger side carpet. Not so here this time, the inside has no leaks whatsoever. Is there a way that a heater core could go bad and start leaking and only leak on the outside? I have a new spare heater core but don't want the hassle of installing it unless absolutely necessary. What are your thought's on this? Thanks, PT

[Bill I.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Pat, really don't know why you had to disconnect the hoses. When I changed my battery last year, I just removed the straps on the exp. tank, moved it toward the manifold,and no problem. Now to your ?, if as you say, no leak at the pass. comp., then it's got to be the connection at the hoses. As you can see by your replacement core, everything is in the pass compartment except the 2 tubes. If they were leaking where they are soldered to the core, it would be inside the car. Suggest remove both hoses again, clean both tubes and inside of hoses, lube the tubes and reinstall.Bill.

[Patrick T.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Thanks Bill, will do. PT

[Bill M.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Pat

I ought a 66 a couple of years ago with the same problem. the car had screw hose clamps and at some point they were over tighted causing the raised area of the entrance tube to collapse. i had to change the core.

Bill

[Dale S.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Never pull or twist a heater hose off of the heater core. More heater cores are sold for this reason than anything else. I always cut them off with a razor blade, losing about one inch of heater hose. The solder joints on the hose connections to the core are the weakest point. I once had a heating and A/C rep. tell me not to tell customers that, as how could we sell more heater cores? Dale

[Brian M.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Pat, did you cut off the used ends of the hose and and place the clamp on a fresh pc of hose?

[Patrick T.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Thanks for the replies, I ordered a pair of new hoses and see what that does. PT

[Dick W.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Permatex #2 on the core fittings. Non hardening, but works most of the time to stop leaks such as yours.

[Patrick T.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Permatex #2 on the core fittings. Non hardening, but works most of the time to stop leaks such as yours.

Good idea Dick! I'll give it a shot today and see what happens. My new hoses and clamps should be here tomorrow from LICS. PT

[Bob H.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

I had a leak caused by the spring clamp losing tension. This was a new clamp.

[Patrick T.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Ok, here's the scoop... this morning I drained the radiator, took out the glove box, the heater box and replaced the original heater core with a new one, since I tend to look at the worst case scenario and I didn't have the new heater hoses and clips yet from UPS.

So I hook everything back up, fill the radiator back up, start the car and the SOB is STILL leaking at the firewall!! Then the UPS guy comes up and gives me the box with the new hoses and clamps. I pulled off the old hoses and clamps and compared them to the new ones. The ends of the old ones were all squishy and the clamps were way bigger in diameter (stretched out) than the new ones I just got.

So I put on the new hoses and clamps, start the car and no leaks anywhere. The problem was the clamps and hoses. Not for nuthin, I guess but by replacing the heater core, I probably saved myself some aggravation for next week when it would have taken a dump. I think I'm going to be drinking heavily tonight! PT

[Stuart F.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Been there done that too. The raised portion on the tubes is the bead. Any distortion to "out of round" on these suckers will cause a leak. If re-using old hoses and clamps, I found that if you use a small amount of permatex sealer on the tubes, then clamp the hoses with both the spring clamp (original) and a screw clamp, tightening just enough to get a seal (not enough to get an impression). Run it through a few heating cycles, then remove the screw clamps and the spring clamps should hold.

I give "Kudos" to the man that can change a battery w/o removing the hoses. Unless you have far more hose length than is correct, you can not easily get them far enough out of the way to get the battery out. This assumes you are using an original size battery. My restoration battery is so big that I could not even put a acid blanket underneath it in the tray and still get the hold down on under the tank. That blanket was less than 3/32" thick too.

Stu Fox

[Lawrence S.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

At least you got it done!

[Paul J.]

Re: '67 heater hose leaks at firewall question...

Ok, here's the scoop... this morning I drained the radiator, took out the glove box, the heater box and replaced the original heater core with a new one, since I tend to look at the worst case scenario and I didn't have the new heater hoses and clips yet from UPS.

So I hook everything back up, fill the radiator back up, start the car and the SOB is STILL leaking at the firewall!! Then the UPS guy comes up and gives me the box with the new hoses and clamps. I pulled off the old hoses and clamps and compared them to the new ones. The ends of the old ones were all squishy and the clamps were way bigger in diameter (stretched out) than the new ones I just got.

So I put on the new hoses and clamps, start the car and no leaks anywhere. The problem was the clamps and hoses. Not for nuthin, I guess but by replacing the heater core, I probably saved myself some aggravation for next week when it would have taken a dump. I think I'm going to be drinking heavily tonight! PT

Thanks for the update.

Pat, you forgot the first rule of the shadetree..."If you're not sure start with the simple stuff". Just like my son (and his dad at about the same age). He just bought a 2000 Silverado and it would randomly cut off, usually after he filled the tank. It would restart immediately and run fine under all different loads. I had him run a couple of cans of fuel system and injector cleaner through it. This did'nt help and his older brother (the mechanic) was giving him all kinds of garbage about the transmission and stuff. He was all frustrated and was giving me a hard time when I told him to change the fuel filter. But he goes on and on about the cleaner not working and it's serious when I tell him..."Look, I'm just following procedure". The fuel filter fixed it.

Paul