Heater Hoses and the tragedy of Double G

Originally Published 20 Oct 2007
Today, two things happened. First, I stopped by my local parts store, Double G Auto Parts here in Newark and found out that they are closing their doors for good. The business has changed hands a couple of times in the past several years, but the fact that they have as many parts as most chain stores (well, they were a Bumper-to-Bumper affiliate) and every hard-to-find part in the world hadn't. Everything in there was slashed down to VERY cheap because a local hospital (Harris) is opening a clinic in the building. So, I stocked up. Scored some Monroe SensaTrac shocks for the front for $20 each along with a few other odds & ends. I am really going to miss that store. Every small town needs a place like that, and now ours is soon to be without.

I also decided that today would be the day to change the heater hoses. It looked pretty straightforward. Two hoses from the heater core to the water pump, with nothing in their way. It was rather simple, except for the bottom hose on the water pump. That little bugger has about 8 microns of clearance for a standard screw-type hose clamp. It just barely fits behind the water pump pulley and the fan belt gets in the way of a easy angle with a screwdriver. Of course, I put it on initally so it wouldnt clear, and had to work it around to get it off and flipped over. It took about 15 minutes to arrange that stupid clamp. I suspect that it originally had some other type of clamp, but oh well. I like these better.