Date:         Sat, 13 Dec 1997 18:04:04 EST
Reply-To:     KENWILFY <KENWILFY@AOL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.sdsc.edu>
From:         KENWILFY <KENWILFY@AOL.COM>
Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
Subject:      Replacing hose on right side
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Have any of you had to replace that piece of 3 inch hose that connects a metal
pipe that comes out of the waterpump to a curved piece of pipe that goes into
the right head?  What a nightmare.  I thought, "Oh this will be easy."  Wrong.
Replacing this hose is probably one of the hardest hoses on the van.
I started noticing some sweet-smelling fragrance coming from the rear of the
van last week.  Hesistated to look but figured I had to since we were going to
take the van to Georgia over the holidays and it needed to be ready for the
trip.  Prayed and then opened the lid.  The prayer were answered, not a head
problem or a waterpump, but a small hose.  Got a bucket for coolant to drain
into.  Took it apart (with some difficulty).  A couple gallons of coolant will
drain out.  (messing with anitfreeze in the winter is a misnomer.  You hands
sure do freeze!)  You have to remove the curved piece of pipe from the head,
then you can get the rubber hose off (or you could cut it off, but then you
couldn't get another piece on anyway).  Puting it back together is more
tricky.  Got another piece of hose for free at FLAPS (I think they felt sorry
for me when I told them it was for a Vanagon).  Then I put the hose on the
curved pipe.  Don't tighten the clamps!  Keep them loose so you can make
adjustments as neccesary.  Push pipe and hose in from the front and back
behind another pipe to the right.  Now you have enough room to try and squish
the hose onto the pipe from the waterpump.  This pipe has a little stud
sticking out from it so you can't push the hose on too far and get it up
against the flywheel, so push it on as far as it will go.  Now is the best
time to really put the RTV on.  When I did it earlier it smeared all over my
hands while trying to push things together.  Now you have just enough room to
get your finger in there so smear it on both surfaces.   Then start pushing
the curved pipe into the little hose and it should come around and line up
with the studs.  Put the nuts back on and tighten them.  Now tighten the hose
clamps (I had to use a rachet with a really small socket).  Viola.  Now put
all the coolant back in, and go through the air bleeding process and you are
done.  It sounds alot easier than it is and it took me over an hour fiddling
around until I finally figured out how to put it on correctly.  So learn from
my mistakes and keep those vans rollin'.
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
PS this should probably be archived for later reference.