Band Camp - Printable Version

+- Newell Gurus (https://newellgurus.com)
+-- Forum: Technical Discussions (https://newellgurus.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Drivetrain (https://newellgurus.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Thread: Band Camp (/showthread.php?tid=6849)

---

Band Camp - Richard - 07-02-2022

Some of you may be WAY ahead of me on this one, but I learned something accidentally while trying to solve a three year nuisance coolant leak. 

It took me a year to find the leak, because if was the connection between the coolant pipe exiting the top of the radiator and the thermostat manifold on the engine. The thermostat manifold is located behind the alternator and AC compressor on my Series 60. What made it more difficult is that I never saw a wet coolant drop anywhere, I would only smell coolant when I first started the engine. Now I know that’s because the coolant was dripping on the exhaust manifold where I could not see it. So when I first cranked the engine, it would vaporize the wet spot and I would get a whiff of coolant. I finally found it by stuffing white paper towels EVERYWHERE I could think of that might leak. 

So once finding the leak, I removed the alternator and AC compressor to gain access, and I replaced the common radiator screw clamps with the fancy constant tension clamps. I even used TWO at the leaking joint. 

Here is a pic of the clamp I used.     

But to my dismay the leak was lessened but not stopped. Hmm snug the clamps (two more times) and still the leak is not stopped. 

In my frustration and unsupervised downtime, I removed the alt and compressor again to gain access to see if I had used the wrong size clamps, look for a hole in the silicone connector tubing, or some other unknown. I decided to replace the clamps because I did not know what else to do, hoping that an engineer’s definition of insanity would not apply. ( Doing the same thing over, but expecting a different outcome). While sourcing the replacement clamps, the accidental learning occurred. The only clamps of that size that the truck parts place had were these.
   
I don’t normally use those, but it was all that were available. At first I tried to reinstall the constant tension flat clamps in the first picture, and I noticed that the connection to the thermostat manifold was one of those that had a slight bulge in the pipe. You could feel it through the silicone tubing. When I tightened the flat band clamps around the bulge, they would always slide in one direction or other off of the bulge. Things that make you go HMMMM. 

Then I looked at the second style of clamp. It has a curved section around the interior of the clamp. I wonder to myself if the purpose of the curved section is to center the clamp on the bulge. Well, I learned after installing it, that the purpose is indeed to center the clamp on the bulge. 

Bingo, bone dry after a couple of weeks and a thousand miles. 

This gets a bit tricky. The first style clamp works really well when the tubing is slide over a straight section of pipe, and the turbo connections and the coolant connections that Newell uses are straight. However the connection to the engine has the bulge. So in that case one style clamp is called for on the straight connection and the other style on the bulged connection. 

And so concludes band camp.

---

RE: Band Camp - HoosierDaddy - 07-02-2022

Thank you, Richard! Again you have taught me something I never knew!!

---

RE: Band Camp - BusNit - 07-02-2022

I've used the T-bolt clamps with great success in the past and prefer them over standard radiator clamps. That said, I never knew they had a bulged type of clamp. Great learning post! As I get older, it will be forgotten anyway and I'll probably be asking one of these days about how to seal a connection with a bulge! Have a happy 4th! (And here I thought we were going to talk about American Pie"!)

---