How To Remove Wire Hose Clamps?

[peejay]

Been wanting to ask this for awhile, finally getting around to replacing water pump/timing belt, so figure now is a good "time"!

 

How do you remove the tension on these wire hose clamps once the screw is loose? (while we're at it, how do they "work"? the design looks "backwards" to me, so must be my logic that's flawed!)

 

 

Also, I'm thinking of replacing ALL the wire clamps with constant tension spring clamps, bad idea? I know serviceability/access for removal may be the greatest "con", but I plan on getting a good set of hose clamp removal pliers that should help with install/removal, when the time comes.

 

Thanks!

[peejay]

Okay, I overthought it (got some help from the GJ forum, too)...

 

I think the "magic" is in the little washer at the tip of the screw, it's what does the pushing, but I still can't figure out how it does the pulling! At any rate, loosened the clamp, sprayed some WD40 on the hose to help ease it off and voila.

 

Here's a pic of the loosened vs unloosened clamp, in case it comes up at a dinner party:

 

[level9]

I hate those things - especially after they rust. I use an impact wrench to knock them loose and if that doesn't work just tear them off with pliers or hacksaw it. I've ripped all of them out of the car. Everything got replaced with stainless. For the cooling system I used Vibrant stainless steel t-bolt clamps.

 

I would only recommend using spring clamps where the OEM used them (and yes I recommend the pliers for them - so much easier) which are typically low pressure applications (eg. vacuum lines, crank case ventilation, fuel vapor lines, etc.). A spring clamp may or may not hold or it will hold just fine until one day you spring a leak on a hot day when you're really working the engine hard and the pressures build up. Not worth the risk IMO.

[Slartibartfast]

The wire ends overlap each other, so as you spin the bolt through the plate, it pushes the washer and the plate apart. Because the ends of the wire are overlapped, pushing them apart pulls the clamp tighter. It's a neat design, and they seem to hold tension just fine, but the wire is the only thing preventing the plate from twisting, so they're tough to free up when the threads seize. Brute-forcing them just bends the wire all to hell. Holding the plate with vise grips or a Crescent wrench may help, if you have access.

 

I am not fond of the spring clamps. Sometimes they're just a little bit too small with the tabs clamped together, so you can't get the hose over the nipple. Sometimes one tab slips out of the pliers, and the clamp spins itself around so the tabs are behind something, so you can't get the pliers back on it. Sometimes they slip out of the pliers and ping across the shop. I imagine they're a little less of a drag if you've got the special pliers, which I don't. (Probably should, now that I think about it.)

 

IIRC some of the wire clamps on mine did not come apart in one piece, and I was annoyed enough about it that I switched everything over to worm clamps. They're a lot easier to work with, they work on a wider range of sizes, and they don't tend to seize up. That said, they can tear stuff up if overtightened, and I have worked with some cheap ones that were inexcusable junk.

[peejay]

2 hours ago, level9 said:

I would only recommend using spring clamps where the OEM used them (and yes I recommend the pliers for them - so much easier) which are typically low pressure applications (eg. vacuum lines, crank case ventilation, fuel vapor lines, etc.). A spring clamp may or may not hold or it will hold just fine until one day you spring a leak on a hot day when you're really working the engine hard and the pressures build up. Not worth the risk IMO.

Good point about the pressure, I didn't think about that!

 

The transmission cooler lines use constant tension clamps, so that system must be much lower pressure than the power steering?

Edited June 25, 2024 by peejay
(changed "spring" to "constant tension")

[peejay]

7 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

Holding the plate with vise grips or a Crescent wrench may help, if you have access.

Hey, that's what I did! Y'all make me feel like I might actually be doing things the right way sometimes!

 

[peejay]

...and I've been trying to use the good (i.e. cost way more than I'd like!) worm clamps, when I do use them, to avoid this:

 

 

(This probably was a constant tension clamp originally, and was replaced with a worm clamp sometime in its life).

Edited June 25, 2024 by peejay
(typo)

[Slartibartfast]

The trouble I've had with cheap worm clamps is mostly due to soft metal deforming. Bands stripping, worm housings opening up and letting the worm skip on the band instead of tightening it, worms coming out of the housing when I try to loosen them.

 

I have yet to find a clamp that doesn't leave some impression on the hose, though obviously the fuel-injection-style clamps are easier on them than the standard worm-drive. I'd say the one in the picture was on there pretty tight, but I don't see any cracks or tearing, so I would not assume that the hose was compromised. I don't see a second impression from an earlier clamp.

 

At the 13 lbs the rad cap limits the cooling system to, I would expect a properly spec'd spring clamp and a properly tightened worm or wire clamp to be functionally identical. I would not expect the steering return to be much higher, as all it's doing is lifting fluid a couple of feet and dumping it back into the reservoir. (The steering pressure line runs over 1k psi at idle, so it's not assembled with hose clamps.) I'm not sure what pressure the trans cooler runs. IIRC it feeds a lube passage in the trans, rather than just dumping right back into the pan, so I imagine it's got a little pressure behind it. I ran a plastic external trans filter on mine for a while, and it didn't explode, so clearly it's not too awful high.

 

I understand the advantage of spring clamps for thermal expansion. Personally, I have an easier time trusting a clamp that I remember tightening than one that I just sorta let go of and hoped for the best.

 

Looks like there's a hybrid of the two clamp types out there, too. Looks like a standard worm clamp with a stack of Belleville springs between the worm drive and the housing.

[adamzan]

The original wire clamps worked the best, you never had to go back and tighten them up like the worm drive ones after the car sat for a while or during the change of the seasons, of course mine were all rusted so I replaced them with worm clamps as that was all that was available at the time locally. Newer cars use the spring ones, if you have the right pliers for it they're fine and you can usually lock them open.

 

Personally I'm partial to these, can make any adjustments on the fly.

 

Edited June 26, 2024 by adamzan

[peejay]

Excellent info as always, everyone!

 

When I was looking at spring clamps initially, I came across some aircraft-grade ones that have an "extra" smooth band on the inside to prevent digging into the hose. Of course, they came at aircraft-quality prices, so I bailed!