Cooling Hose Clamp Torque?

[bfloyd]

I'm right in the middle of putting all of my new hoses in the car, using the "Complete Hose Kit" I bought from DMCH back in December. I seem to be having an issue with getting the clamps tight. Not really sure how tight is "too tight". When I took the original ones off the car they were really "on there", but these new clamps that came with the kit seem to slip when I crank down on them. It's like the screw is slipping and stripping the hole out in the clamp. I start tightening up on the clamp, and when I get it to the point where I want to snug it up tight it just "pops" and goes back to being loose. I really don't want to deal with leaks once I get it all put back together.

I bought John Hervey's water pump kit and the clamps that came with his kit gave me no trouble at all. Did I get a bad batch of clamps or am I trying to get them tighter than necessary?

[Bitsyncmaster]

I use ABA hose clamps most of which use 40 in/lbs for full clamp pressure. The following has a chart of torque for their clamps. I know cheap clamps can not use those torques.

http://www.ultimategarage.com/abaprice.html

[DMC-81]

Hi there,

I'm doing the exact same thing. The clamps that I got in my DMCH complete kit were Norma Clamps. I searched Norma clamp torque and got a very helpful PDF chart of information and torque values.

http://www.normagroup.com/norma.nsf/res/NORMACLAMP+TORRO.pdf/$file/NORMACLAMP+TORRO.pdf

You'll want an inch pound wrench and I found this conversion chart helpful:

http://www.thetoolhut.com/Torque-Conversion-Newton-Meters-Inch-Pounds.html

It looks like the recommended tightening value is not too far under the fracture torque. Eg 3+0.5 Nm assembly vs 4.5 Nm fracture for the "Torro" 9 W3-W5

Aside from the helpful people on this forum, here are my 3 best friends when it comes to this car:

34240

:smile: :wrenchin:

[DMCMW Dave]

Yes - if you are occasionally stripping the clamps, you are going just over too tight.

[jamesrguk]

Yes - if you are occasionally stripping the clamps, you are going just over too tight.

34258

I understand that these hi torque clamps are quite good too.

I've only used them a couple of times, not on the DeLorean as yet, but they tightened up really nicely, you need to buy the right size as they're not quite as flexible as standard hose clips.

Nothing more annoying than a slipping hose clip when you over torque then your forever wondering if it is indeed tight enough for a good seal.

J