Heater hose shaping coils.......

[BobT-47P15]

Someone is offering these on eBay..........I don't recall ever having seen them before.  Anyone

familiar with them.......do they work well........are they really needed?

 

Link to ad:         

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HVAC-Heater-Hose-Shaping-Coil-GATES-28517-/271658716662?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1947%7CMake%3APlymouth&hash=item3f401f0df6&vxp=mtr

[casper50]

If you've never seen them before that should answer your question of if they are needed. lol

[Andydodge]

Never seen those type, however I've seen plenty of lower radiator hoses with a coil spring/wire inside the rubber to stop the hose collapsing due to water pump suction.......andyd

[Plymouthy Adams]

I could see a use for these IF you had a tight fitting for the hose to run through and you need to protect against chaffing.....or ......if you were custom routing hose and having to make a tight bend and could not find a preformed hose to adapt...

[DonaldSmith]

I looked Google - Gates Unicoil.  They have a solid spine that gets bent to the inside of the curve for the shape of the bend.  The coils hold the hose to the curve.  

 

JEGS for one has them.  O'Reilly doesn't have them on line - call the store.  Amazon has some hoses and bends, and some Unicoils.  

 

These things could be just what we need in some instances.   Good to know about them.

[JBNeal]

I have used these on my JD 425 for its 1/4" fuel hose & a 1/4" water pump bypass hose.  The fuel hose has to make a right angle from the fuel filter to the carburetor; the spring rate of the fuel hose puts stress on the plastic fuel filter so much so that the inline filter takes on a banana shape.  The problem is that if that fuel filter splits in the middle, the fuel pump in the tank will push fuel through this break and onto the very hot muffler, which can cause a fire...and this scenario played out for the previous owner of this fine machine, as he probably neglected to change out the filter annually, so he traded that marshmallow on a newer green machine, and I scooped up a Cadillac of a lawn tractor for a few bucks, it only needed all of the plastic replaced forward of the steering wheel.  Anyhow, I upgraded the fuel line with these Gates unicoils back in '03, and haven't had a problem as the fuel filters have come out straight.  The bypass hose comes in close proximity to the muffler on that machine, so I put a coil there to form the hose to clear that heat source and as a bit of a guard if the hose flops around, then the metal coil will bounce off of the heat source instead of the rubber.

 

I may use them on the heater hoses on my trucks, maybe the fuel pump rubber line also...O'Reilly's carried them on the shelf until recently, but I was told they no longer carry them.  NAPA has them as special order items, and their prices were competitive with the eBay vendors, so that's the way I went when I added one on the bypass hose

[desoto1939]

As noted before about the plastic fuel filters in the older cars there always the possibility that the plastic could crack, and this has happened and the cars has caught on fire.  This is why one of the members has recommeded the all metal fuel filter instead of the plastic fuel filters. 

 

I know we can buy the plastic ones at swap meets for around a couple of bucks and it has the ability to view the buildup of sediment, but maybe we should switch to the AC metal body with the glass sediment bowel as a precautionary to prevent a melted fuel filter.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Rich HArtung

Desoto1939@aol.com

[Oldguy48]

I could have used a couple of those when I installed the heater hoses on my Plymouth.  I needed each hose to have a 90° bend at the firewall, so I ended up at NAPA, and found what I needed in a pre-formed hose.  I'll have to keep those in mind when it's time to replace those hoses.

 

Wayne

[Ulu]

I could see a use for these IF you had a tight fitting for the hose to run through and you need to protect against chaffing.....or ......if you were custom routing hose and having to make a tight bend and could not find a preformed hose to adapt...

 

Exactly so.

 

On heavy equipment they are used to route & protect various hoses, where they were exposed to being chafed, pinched, struck, etc.