My lower heater hose blew and well I thought, no big deal its just a heater hose. Went out to start the project.........crap..........left all the stuff to fix it in DILs car and she is gone for a couple of hours. OK start looking at the procedure.........Jeez, gotta take the A/C compressor off just to get to the clamp. Ok take the compressor off.......hmmm.......cant get the inside bolt out, it has a 13mm head. Well the other one was a 15mm.........hmmmm........take the valve cover off. Okay the compressor has a bolt thats under the pulley.......jeez cant get to it with a socket.........hmmm........remember thread about using and allen?? Hmmmmm get it out with a 5.5 allen......take it out, realizing, no, its a T45 star. Hmmmm I have one of those too. OK, DIL is still not back, its getting late and cooler by the minute. Call 18 times to her cell......no answer. Oh well, that overflow reservoir is awful nasty, lets go ahead and clean it. Jeez what kinda glop it inside this thing?? Work on cleaning it.....ok looks pretty clean. DIL finally shows up, cool, I can get started. Replace the hose with new clamps. Hose is just 5/8" ID not a preformed, hope it does ok. Install the two upper bolts and install the front bolt and its much easier with the T45. Move the valve cover back and start to tighten upper bolts.............hmmmmm......got the 13mm and 15mm backwards. Take off valve cover, change bolts. 13mm wont start into the threads.........hmmmm....loosen the T45 and it goes in. Tighten upper bolts and reinstall valve cover. Refill with fresh antifreeze its gonna be 26* in FL tonight. Take a test drive, everything is good. Thank you!!!


Man o man, just another day in the life of Corvette ownership

 

Ain`t it a great "Hobby"??

 

Found my '86 was leaking on garage floor. My local shop had just installed a new water pump so I thought "aha, they screwed up". Took it in and get the "call". It's the heater hose and it will run you $120! "What?" "Well, we have to take off the A/C, yada, yada." After reading your story, I'm glad I paid the $120!!!

 

Yeah I would say at the $80/hr good mechanic rate, $120 is about right. It took me about 2 hours but as you read, I ended up doing a couple things twice and did some other stuff.

 

I dont get it. My mechanic replaced the lower hose on my 86.Took about an hour, but there was no removal of an ac compressor. I know it was a pain in the azz, kept raising and lowering the lift for easier accessibility

 

Lower rad hose or heater hose?

 

It was the lower radiator hose. The upper was a no brainer, I did it myself

 

Go out to the car and look at the lower heater hose Not sure on the LTx's but the L98 buries the water pump clamp under the A/C compressor.

 

Thanks for the info