Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

[D S.]

Who sells dated reproduction Wittek hose clamps?

Thanks,
Scott Sims
Texas Chapter

[Joseph M.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

You can try Dr. Rebuild.

[D S.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

Thanks, Joseph. Barring that does anyone know someone who has a originals for sale?

[Brian G.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

Try here.....

http://www.wernersparts.com/Hose Clamps.htm

[Dan H.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

I bought one set of 'dated' Wittek clamps for my 64, BIG mistake!!! Would not seal the top hose. Didn't want to put gasket sealer bandaid fix on my radiator, put original Wittek clamp on and bingo, leak fixed. I'd stay with 'real' Wittek clamps and not worry when it's going to leak.

[Bill L.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

I agree. Fleebay has dated clamps that pop up fairly often.

Repros are not the same quality as originals. Kinda flimsy in fact.

I tracked down both styles for my 70 and it was a lot cheaper than a perfect RC-15 cap


Bill

I bought one set of 'dated' Wittek clamps for my 64, BIG mistake!!! Would not seal the top hose. Didn't want to put gasket sealer bandaid fix on my radiator, put original Wittek clamp on and bingo, leak fixed. I'd stay with 'real' Wittek clamps and not worry when it's going to leak.

[Terry M.]

Re: Dated reproduction Wittek clamps

Scott, I don't want to insult your intelligence, but for everyone -- you do know they were dated by quarters?

And since the subject is up here: One of my everlasting regrets is that I never got to the Wittek plant before it was unfortunately closed. A very sad story in the closing, but let's stick to technical info.

I did establish a telephone relationship with one of their plant engineers. They made their tower clamps out of galvanized sheet that they slit to width for the size of the clamp. Replating with zinc will yield only a fair facsimile. The diameter and pitch of the screw was critical for the function of the clamp. One of the greatest problems they had is the installers would over torque the clamp on installation crushing the tube being clamped. That happened on the heater clamps (both of them.) on my 1970. This would cause a leak (It never has on mine) and a warranty come back. Wittek sized the diameter of the screw to shear if the screw was over torqued. Obviously that torque limit would be different for copper heater tubes than the machined steel of the heater or cast water pump/thermostat fittings. I have seen a number of AIR hose clamps without the hex head due to this "feature." Even though those die cast parts are not likely to collapse on over torque.

I believe the screw on the reproduction tower clamps (at least those sized for the heater hose positions) are too large diameter. The original heater hose clamps are different sizes and are distinguished by DMC on one size and the clamp size and production date on the other. The DCM was an abbreviation for Dychromate; and those clamps had a yellow cast to them to aid the installers in distinguishing them from the other size. I am not sure both size clamps are available in reproduction and proper sizes are critical to the clamp's sealing ability. These seemingly minor differences may result in the sealing difficulties many are having in getting a proper function of the reproduction clamps. I believe, but have not actually confirmed that there is a material thickness difference between the OEM and reproduction clamp bodies. This too may be causing some of the clamp failures. Those clamps were more of a precession part than they might at first glance appear.