Reply to "Heater tube replacement (Success)"

I haven't replaced them - yet. I just thought the photos would be helpful for someone needing to do this mod, to see what you're up against.

Mine are rust pitted on both ends, crusty inside, and the rear ends are crushed and bent. And that's the way they were when I got the car. I replaced all the hoses and clamps, RTV'd them up good, and still couldn't get it to stop leaking. So I blocked off the heater ports at the engine and went without; that was 15 years ago. I live in Florida, so no big loss.

As to "what were they thinking", let's just say this wasn't designed with ease of assembly or serviceability in mind. Just looking at it, there is no way those tubes go in or come out, intact, with those brackets in place. They must have welded the brackets together around the tubes, positioned them inside the upper tunnel metal stamping, welded the brackets in, then installed that assembly in the cockpit and welded it in place. They had to design and manufacture the brackets, pre-bend the tubes, and use 4 more hose clamps than would otherwise be required. I'm an engineer, and it had me scratching my head. It would have been much simpler to just run heater hose the whole way, which is what I plan to do (with cut off valves outside the cockpit, of course.)

By the way, you can buy brackets much like those in Dennis' drawing in any good hardware store. They're meant to hold electrical conduits.