I had taken my 73 Spider to the mechanic to have him fit in a rear brake line. He got this done and brakes are working good. He had extra time and as I had parts in the trunk he put them on. This included points; rotor; distributor cap and coil. Turned the ignition and the Spider came to life after 25 years of not running!! Drove it out of the garage and left it running while he attended to other cars. After 25 minutes he came out to see if the fan had kicked in to find anti-freeze all over the ground. He didn't have any time available for 2 weeks to work on the car so I brought it home.

The heater hose that comes from the heater core passenger side and goes into the top of the engine block has split were it is clamped. The smaller hose from the heater drivers side and runs down to the side of the block is bloated and soft.

Question is can I buy heater hose from an auto parts store and use that. Obviously it will not be formed to fit. I would also like to add a "burping" T valve.

I think the cause of the problem maybe that I had taken the rad out and had it flushed and put new rad hoses on. The system had not been bleed and perhaps it had an air lock which caused the car to heat and the weakest place broke. I also noted the heater had been in the off position.

Obviously I am extremley anxious to get this issue resolved as I have had the car for 2 years and it is very close to driving. ( Hope I didn't jinx myself sayin that.)

Thanks for taking the time to send me your recommendations. I know I should just call AR and have them send me the hoses but living in ON Can takes time to get them here.

Not sure about the older models however, I thought I had seen that both NAPA and Canadian Tire have hoses that would fit. More people will chime in

You can never go wrong with AR

Nice to see you are getting close to roadable. There is nothing special about the heater hoses other than finding one with the proper size and bends to work for the location. I ordered mine from AR as those are short hoses and you might not find a good match at your autoparts store. NAPA sells the coolant tees. They have them in a couple of sizes so just need to match it up with the heater hose size. I put mine at the top of the arc of the heater hose that goes to the head. It was less than $5.

4uall wrote:not sure about the older models

All I could find for my 68 was the generic ribbed "one size fits none" at local dealers.
Got the right ones from AR, took less than a week to get them.

spiderdan wrote:

4uall wrote:not sure about the older models

All I could find for my 68 was the generic ribbed "one size fits none" at local dealers.
Got the right ones from AR, took less than a week to get them.

Condom shopping again?

I went to Rubberline and picked up 2 feet of 5/8 x1BR Contractors water heater hose $3.74. Then to several auto suppliers and got a Flushing T $1.95. Plus new hose clamps about $6.00. Put everything together jacked the front end to the sky and filled with prestone 50/50. Left the filling T cap off. Ran the engine watched bubbles coming out and continured to fill as needed. Also half filled overflow bottle and massaged hoses. Looks like I got her bled out. Waited about 20 miniutes for temp to go passed 190 and the fan didn't come on. Notivced the horn didn't work either. Also the lights whcih had been working were not coming on. The gauges all worked. Turned it off and let it cool. Took it off the jack stands got in it and did a couple of laps around the block. Engine run smooth and pulling strong. Wow my second ride in a Spider. First one was with Russ who has been a real inspiration to me and I am sure to a lot of Spider owners on this form. This time I was the driver.

OK now onto the electrical issues and will be reading up on the form and reading the manual to begin the trouble shoot. Looking forward to hearing from Jay who has an uncanny way of reading our issues and pinpointing the references to the posts which lead to resolution. Then onto my favorite vendor ( AR) for the parts.

Glad to hear that you got it all worked out

On to the next

Waited about 20 miniutes for temp to go passed 190 and the fan didn't come on. Notivced the horn didn't work either.

On my 81 the horn and fan were on the same fuse. It may be you have a blown fuse.