Getting ready to replace the heater hoses on my '71 w/AC, and I need help identifying what this is - some kind of patch?


Finally, what might be the purpose of this capped-off tee fitting?


Thanks in advance,
David

2nd,,,backflush tee

I would say the first pic is a chaff guard that someone added, perhaps at one point in time the air cleaner snorkel was digging into the hose.

Caliwildlife is correct about the backflush tee. Used to be for sale all the time from Prestone. It would come as a kit. Nothing wrong with having it if you have never back-flushed your motor to get the block and radiator cleaned out. Just run the flushing chemicals through the motor then hook a hose up to the connection and purge teh trash. Once you are done you have to drain all that water out because the minerals will promote rust, add coolant and off you go. If you think its ugly replace the hose and save it for the next time you want to flush it

Looks like a bubba patch to me.
Some people are such tight wads they won't go to the store and buy 3 ft hose and fix it correctly.

No I think he did tear through it at one point when the motor torques that hose would be moving up and down and it must have been hitting the snorkel as was mentioned before. If you are curious unwrap it...

that hose should probably go under the air conditioner pump rather than over it any way

rare oem red heater hoses. hard to find.

For sure the compressor belt was rubbing against the heater hose. One of my countless mistake, occurred after replacing the heater hose, When I failed to run in the hose under the bracket below the compressor. The good news, as soon I started the engine I really mistake and thankfully the hose only had a small wear mark. I wonder if one of my cousins is named Bubba​​​​​​?

I'm a little bit skeered to unwrap it. Maybe once I have a replacement hose in-hand...

I'll definitely route it under the compressor, along with the other hose. No need to worry about the compressor belt, though - the compressor seized when I was driving it home from auction, and I had to cut the belt off on the side of the road with toenail clippers.

My AIM does indeed show that upper hose going under/in front of the AC compressor, so I'll "aim" for that.

Seems like it's going to be a stretch to go under the compressor and then come back up above the manifold to hook into the hose fitting, which is kind of pointing upward. The AIM page seems to show that fitting coming out sideways from the manifold, as if there were a right-angle bend in the fitting, but I can't find anything like that in the usual online stores.

Can someone with a SB, w/AC, and upper heater hose going under the compressor please confirm for me how that manifold fitting looks?

You need #4 clip if you want to go under the A/C unit.

PO never replaced my #4 so I just went over the A/C unit.

Heres a pic from my 1970 SB, you can see the routing of the heater hose under the AC compressor. Also the intake manifold heater hose has a formed bend in the hose.

Perfect. Thanks so much, boat196 and others. I'll have to see what my new hoses from CC look like. A similar bend will also be helpful at the heater box end of that hose.

boat196, your tower clamps look so much more boss than the typical worm-drive hose clamps I see everywhere. One of those eventually chewed into the heater hose so much it started leaking onto the manifold, and started me off on this new little project.