I did the long heater hose today.

I posted a while back that rats had a go at my car. I noticed a coolant leak all along the sill under the left door. My research here showed it likely to be the dreaded long heater hose and my suspicion was that it was holed by a rat.

I got the left side of the car up on two bottle jacks and put two jack stands under the chassis for incase.

I took off both front and rear wheels and stripped out the wheel well shrouds. I took off the cover at the windscreen in the spare wheel well and loosened the hose that enters the T piece from the rear. I was not sure it was the right hose. I found a hose that came up over the left fuel tank and was connected to the head, I took a chance and loosened this. Quite fiddly work, but nothing like what was to come.

I blew into the engine side of the hose and was rewarded with some coolant coming out the other side in the spare wheel well. Must be the right hose then.

I measured the nipple the hose came off and it was 16mm. I went to the hose centre and got 4m of heater hose for R120.00 or $12. Looks and feels just the same as what was in there.

Next day I pondered over whether to pull from the front or the back. Most say pull from the back. I gave a few test pulls and It seemed to move easier to the front initially. I fished my fish-tape in from the back to pull a rope through in the age old tradition but my fish-tape would not go through.

I decided to give another pull from the back to see it I could move the pipe away from what ever was kinking it at that point so that I could advance my fish-tape and then return to the front and pull the whole thing forward again hopefully leaving the fish-tape beyond the kink so i could advance it in the pipe again. However, as my helper gave the pipe its adjusting rearwards pull, I heard a tear and saw him fall on his plonk behind the car with 3 feet of pipe in his hands.
Casual observation revealed that the pipe broke where the rat gnawed through it.

My heart sank, but then I saw that there was still a gnawed single hand holds worth sticking out from the behind the tank filler neck.

This should give you an idea of how hard we had to pull. It was full ball. You could hear the fibres tearing in the old pipe. It crept along 10mm at a time. Now and then it would go about 3-4 inches suddenly.
Another thing I did that probably helped, was I poured boiling water, heavily laced with green dishwasher liquid into the pipe to soften it and lubricate it within the chase. Remember my pipe had a hole in it so the chase got a good drenching. This could probably be accomplished from the front fender by spraying slip juice in there for those without such a convenient hole in the pipe. I fully recommend the hot water in the pipe trick.

I did not move the tank. I pulled the pipe over the tank as origionally routed, standing at the back of the car.

I did however remove the pipe from the spare wheel well and laid it out on the floor as joined to my new pipe, parallel with the car. And obviously I undid the bent steel strap retainer in the front-rear wheel well cavity.

One pax pulled from the rear and the other pushed from the front.

What I did to join the two pipes, was to drill a hole right through the pipe about 4 inches back from the end. And another hole at 90 degrees to that one at about 3 inches from the end. I had a big sack needle and I stitched 3mm polyprop ( ski) rope through it. The ends of the rope intentionally came out on the inside of the pipe where i made a knot, drawing the pipes toward each other. I then duct taped them together with about 3 wraps and over my stitching. Since I didn't have a safety rope running through the pipe, I needed to be confident my join would hold.

I smeared a bit of vaseline on the franken-join and it held up well enough despite getting solidly hung up for a bit- somewhere behind the tank I would estimate - before a balls to the wall pull broke it free and it came into sight from behind the filler neck into the engine bay. Happiness was evident by casual observation of whoops and high fives etc.

I would not do this job for less than R10000.00 or $1000 labour only. But then again thats the going rate to get me out of bed in the morning.

Next I replaced the chicken wire that was left by now between the airbox and the side scoop with some purposeful looking ducting that I got at the same hose shop for R150.00 or about $15 to match the right side that i replaced years ago.

Now while the wheels are off, I'm going to do something to lower my car about 30mm in front and about 15mm at the back. The rear would be easy by machining a new groove for the snap ring to sit in dropping the perch as there is miles of clearance between the perch and the suspension arm.

There is but a pube's space between the front perch and the lower a arm. So lowering the perch there just will not cut it.

So despite whatever empirical experiences may have been relayed in here to the contrary, if any, the only way the front of a 1989 ABS 328 goes down is with a shorter spring, whether attached to a height adjustable coilover or not. Simple. The end.

My wheels are 17" and they observe the origional OD strictly. So the resultant lowish profile tyres inform my decision to leave the spring rate or poundage as origional to prevent a stiffer uncomfortable crashy ride.

With help from my Swedish forum friend Fredric and Koni South Africa, I'm working through this. I won't put my wheels back on until she is sitting with the same wheel to fender gap on top of the wheels as is found on the sides.

Regards
Greg.