Installing split cables - any tips?

[nullset]

I'm trying to install Hervey's split cables, but I am having trouble getting them through the channel in the frame. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing?

Everything is out now, I'm just stuck reinstalling the new hoses.

Are there any orings needed where the split cables meet?

--buddy

[DMC5180]

The coupler section of the front hoses should go through with out that much trouble. You may just be getting snagged on left over cable ties or something like that.

Yes the coupler section requires an O-ring. If you did not see one when you took the connection apart (nut side) you either lost it or Hervey forgot to install it.

[dmc6960]

Also, if the fuel tank closing plate bolts stick through the welded nuts, you'll need to back them out first.

[DMCMW Dave]

Also, if the fuel tank closing plate bolts stick through the welded nuts, you'll need to back them out first.

....and replace them or add more washers. If you let them come through the weldnuts they will poke holes in your new hoses.

[nullset]

The coupler section of the front hoses should go through with out that much trouble. You may just be getting snagged on left over cable ties or something like that.


It seems to be getting stuck. I haven't been able to get it through at all. I took the fuel tank closing plate off so that I could get a better view of everything.



Yes the coupler section requires an O-ring. If you did not see one when you took the connection apart (nut side) you either lost it or Hervey forgot to install it.

I'll double check that the O-rings are there.

Maybe I need to straighten the hoses out for a bit. I left them in the box for a while, so I think they're wanting to bend in a way that's getting them stuck.

Thanks.

--buddy

[Nicholas R]

It is really tight. Hervey bumps up the size of the low pressure hose so that he can make his own hoses with the big accumulator fitting on the end(not sure why though since you can get fittings that down-size to a smaller hose, whatever). I want to say the original low and high pressure lines are #8(13/32") and #6(5/16") size hose, but Hervey bumps each up to #10(1/2") and #8(13/32") because of the direct crimp fitting sizes, even though you can get #10 fittings for #8 hose and #8 fittings for #6 hose. They're just *supposedly* harder to find

I've installed these twice. Once on a lift, and once on the ground. The lift was easier because the car was lifted by the body (jack points) and that tiny little extra bit of extra split from the frame hanging down made a huge difference.

On the ground, I actually pulled the front shock tower mount bolts (have the strut bar anyway so it's easy), and the front right body bolt in the center of the car, and used a jack (just the tiniest bit) under the right front jack point to split the body just a bit (this is with the fuel tank cover bolts out). Seems kind of ridiculous right? I mean the point of the split hoses is so that you dont have to separate the body and frame but, at least for me, you still have to a little bit.

[DMCMW Dave]

We install one-piece hoses all the time (both OE and repro made to the same sizes) and it's not this much trouble.

[Nicholas R]

We install one-piece hoses all the time (both OE and repro made to the same sizes) and it's not this much trouble.

Honestly I wish I had know it was going to be so much trouble before I went 2 piece. With the original's being one size smaller, I'm sure it's pretty easy to just pop them in place.

EDIT:
I take that back. Despite the pain these hoses are, If it weren't for the joint in the middle allowing me to re-orient the hoses, I wouldn't have been able to adapt the hoses to the LS1 so for that, I am thankful I went with these hoses.

[nullset]

I spent two more hours today under the car wrestling with the smaller of the two hoses, and it simply will not go past the bend in the frame.

Then I looked at the larger hose, and it certainly is bigger than the channel it's supposed to go in.

At this point I'm tempted to send Hervey his hoses back, get a refund, and get the proper nonsplit cables.

If I'm going to split the body / frame enough to install the hoses, I'd rather install the OEM ones than his.

Has anyone else had trouble with these? Could he have sent me the wrong hoses or used different fittings?

Is there some trick I'm missing?

I'm trying to install them starting at the front of the car and pushing them through the channels. Is that right?

--buddy

[Nicholas R]

...I'm trying to install them starting at the front of the car and pushing them through the channels. Is that right?

--buddy

Thats what I did...

Are you jacking the car up via the frame or body? Just jacking via the jackpoints on the body will make a difference.

[nullset]

Thats what I did...

Are you jacking the car up via the frame or body? Just jacking via the jackpoints on the body will make a difference.

I have it on Jackstands on the frame.

I didn't know Hervey oversizes his cables. That really makes me tempted to send them back. I've had bad experiences with almost everything on my car that has his sticker on it, and I'm really frustrated.

It's a tight fit to begin with. If I'd known his cables were oversized, and that I'd need to split the body/frame anyway, even just a little bit, I would've gone with Houston's hoses.

Is there a way to get the car on jackstands at the body jacking points, safely? I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable being under the car with the frame hanging like that.

I'm very tempted to send Hervey his hoses back, get Houston's (the correct ones), and try to bribe my way into access to a lift to do this job properly.

--buddy

[Elvis]

There's a guy with the same name that I have who sang a great song: little less conversation - a little more action !

I installed these hoses last year and yes it took me a bit longer than I first thought.
I had to loosen a few more bolts - so what ?

Passenger side - take out or at least loosen the 3 Bolts that hold the fibre glass to the frame. (maybe also the on in the trunk)
If you have the car ond jack stands with the FRAME SITTING ON THEM - you can jack up the car
a little bit and the hoses will go thru.
I don't know the english name for it, but in german we say "Grube" to it - some people have it in their garage instead of a lift.
Very helpful for this job and safer than jackstands.

If you use the original hoses you might have to take out all bolts that hold the frame and lift the fibre
glass up 1-2 inches from the frame. If you can't do Hervey's, you won't be able to do the original !

BTW - evaporator, compressor, hoses, dryer - all new from Hervey - they work and the system keeps pressure.

[nullset]

There's a guy with the same name that I have who sang a great song: little less conversation - a little more action !

I installed these hoses last year and yes it took me a bit longer than I first thought.
I had to loosen a few more bolts - so what ?


For me, these were sold as "You don't have to do that".

If I have to take out body frame bolts, I'd rather do it right, and get hoses less likely to leak in the future, with no split. I only went with the split hoses because it was supposed to be easier. It seems not to be.

I've been under the car for >3 hours now, trying to install a hose that should slide right in.

You can see why I'm frustrated.

I haven't even gotten to the larger hose yet. I don't see how it can fit in place of the old one at all. It is larger than the opening it's supposed to be in.



Passenger side - take out or at least loosen the 3 Bolts that hold the fibre glass to the frame. (maybe also the on in the trunk)
If you have the car ond jack stands with the FRAME SITTING ON THEM - you can jack up the car
a little bit and the hoses will go thru.
I don't know the english name for it, but in german we say "Grube" to it - some people have it in their garage instead of a lift.
Very helpful for this job and safer than jackstands.


That makes me really nervous.

If I'm going to have to jack the body up, I'd rather do it on a lift, and install the proper nonsplit hoses.

I really don't understand why Hervey oversizes the hoses. He really should mention things like that when he sells an "easy to install" product.



If you use the original hoses you might have to take out all bolts that hold the frame and lift the fibre
glass up 1-2 inches from the frame. If you can't do Hervey's, you won't be able to do the original !

BTW - evaporator, compressor, hoses, dryer - all new from Hervey - they work and the system keeps pressure.

I'm fine with that. It sounds like I've got to jack up the body anyway, so I'd might as well go all out.

--buddy

[Nicholas R]

You have to support the car via the jackpoints, no way around it. The car was made for this, I dont know why there's so much of a stigma surrounding it. Just put the jack under the frame to get the car up in the air, but put the jack stands under the jack points on the corners of the body tub, then lower the car back down. It will make a difference! The frame only hangs a tiny it but the difference between the body sitting on the frame and the frame hanging from the body, is enough to get the hoses in.

When you pick up a DeLorean on a lift, you use the jack points on the body. It's not going to crush you. The car was designed for this.

Jacking the body off the frame, then trying to jack the frame up so you can actually get under the car to put the one piece hose in is going to be a lot more work than just trying to jack the car up via the body.

[Elvis]

I had it on the lift but the hose on the passenger side didn't go thru - mainly because I have
an extra thick ground wire in there, too. (yeah, great tip that I got back then - I'm sure it's worth nothing)
Without it, it would have gone thru for sure.

So I loosened 3-4 bolts, drove the car over the "grube" and jacked the car up on the passenger side
for less than an inch - and the hose went in.

I didn't measure the thicknesss of the hoses, but I can't remember that they were different than original.

In the end it took me less time than typing this here !

[82DMC12]

Question to those that did it - if you remove the body bolts on one side and jack that side up, just to lift up 1/2 inch or so, are there any other parts at risk of bending or breaking wires? I have to do this job in a week.

Andy

[DMCMW Dave]

Question to those that did it - if you remove the body bolts on one side and jack that side up, just to lift up 1/2 inch or so, are there any other parts at risk of bending or breaking wires? I have to do this job in a week.

Andy

Not really for that minimal a lift. The rear risk is breaking the cage-nut cages on rusty body bolts, then the body is loose on the frame forever. How overall rusty is the frame?

[David T]

Instead of trying to loosen the body bolts the other, easier method is to slightly bend the flange of the frame if you have to. You can bend it back and with a little paint you will never notice. You should not have to do that with the split hoses. If you do take the bolts out holding the fuel panel be sure to get most of the fuel (weight) out of the tank so the tank doesn't fall out. All you really have to do is loosen them or do them one-at-a-time. On the 5-speed you also need room for the clutch hose on the left side A/C hose. You are making this a bigger deal than it really is. Some have found that the tiny bit they needed was gained by just jacking the car by the lift points on the body, not the frame. What you WILL find is that it is just plain hard to feed the hoses into place because of friction. The way I do it is with an assistant, one person pushes and one person pulls. Be VERY careful when making the connections. Double check that the "O" ring is properly seated and lubricated with refrigerant oil and make up all of the connections by hand to avoid cross-threading. Use 2 wrenches to hold back so you do not twist anything. Assemble all of your connections before tightening to prevent any twisting or strain on the connections. You do not have to make any of the connections very tight. The seal is dependent on the "O" rings and over tightening them will not stop (or prevent) a leak. Where the hose passes near the steering be sure to route it properly and use plenty of zip ties to keep it away from the U joints. Leave a little slack to the condenser. The hoses should not be tight or put any strain on the connections.
David Teitelbaum

[82DMC12]

Not really for that minimal a lift. The rear risk is breaking the cage-nut cages on rusty body bolts, then the body is loose on the frame forever. How overall rusty is the frame?

The frame on 11114 is very nice and I shouldn't have a problem with body bolts if needed. None of the tank plate bolts on the underside gave me any trouble. I'm hoping I can just push the hoses through but wanted to know my options.

Andy

[jawn101]

Weighing in a little late on this, but we put the split hoses on #2100 with only minimal difficulty. Definitely getting them past the fuel tank area was the most challenging but it didn't take more than a few minutes to fish them through. We did lift the whole car on a 2 post lift, via the jack points on the body - which lends credence to Nicholas' theory that you get just that extra tiny bit of space doing it that way.

[DMCMW Dave]

We find that the clearance in this area is variable. The fiberglass/frame fit is not consistent from car to car, so one person's "that's easy" experience may not translate to another car.

[AdmiralSenn]

I can attest that I was able to snake my hoses through without lifting anything. I just left the shipping caps on the hoses and fed them through the cavity and it was fine. Definitely different between cars!

[kings1527]

I'm trying to install Hervey's split cables, but I am having trouble getting them through the channel in the frame. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing?

Everything is out now, I'm just stuck reinstalling the new hoses.

Are there any orings needed where the split cables meet?

--buddy

Hi Buddy,

How did you take care of the problem? I might be tackling the same thing real soon.

Thanks.