'97 Taurus GL: Garden Hose/PVC hose fittings?

[Colt Hero]

'97 Taurus GL: Garden Hose/PVC hose fittings?

3.0l 164k miles Vulcan

Having lots of "fun" doing this water pump replacement. Not nearly as easy as the Ford (or Haynes) manuals would have you believe - but that's another story.

Here are the questions:

The 12" section of hose coming off the neck of the pump needs to be replaced. The problem is this hose is actually part of Ford's famous "H" hose that routes coolant both TO and AROUND the heater core. It runs into (or is fused/glued into) a molded plastic "T" with no apparent means of de-coupling. Instead of going to the dealer and buying a whole new "H" hose (and dealing with the install headaches associated with that), I'd like to just replace this 12" section. But to do that, (I think) I'd have to cut out the molded "T" and replace it with another "T" (like a garden hose or PVC "T") - something that I could attach hose clamps to on three sides. It would be really nice if the replacement "T" had the ability to shut off flow in one direction. This way, I could shut off flow to the heater core in the summer months, plus it would make flushing the core easier...

Also, I removed the two 5" studs from the block that the Power Steering Bracket is mounted on so that I'd have more wiggle room to install the pump behind/below it (I didn't want to de-couple the hydraulic line on the pump for fear of creating more trouble for myself). Could I replace these studs with standard bolts (with bolt heads)? The problem with the studs is (unbelievably) the ends are circular! After removing the nuts I thought I'd be able to turn the studs out with a socket or wrench, but NOOooo. One stud actually came out by hand by vibrating the bracket on it a bit, and the other one I got out with vise-grips. I was thinking I'd use the vise-grips to turn them back in, but there's only a very tiny sliver of non-threaded area at the tip to grab and I'm concerned that I may not be able to tighten them in sufficiently. Looks like they only have about 3/4" inch of threading on the block side. The other end has about 3" of threading where the nut tightens against the bracket. The replacement bolts would need to be shorter than the studs because the nut threaded in with about 1/2"-5/8" of threaded stud poking through once tightened down.

[CrapaTaurusWrecks]

I ran into the same problem you're having a few months ago. I had a tiny hole in my T-fitting. Below is what I did to resolve the problem. Hope it helps.

My first choice was to replace the part with the original Ford hose part so I went to my local dealer and was quoted a price of $97.07 for the heater hose assembly.
The next day when I stopped laughing I took a closer look at the hose assembly on my car and realized there was enough extra hose to cut the crimped metal parts off of the hose and just replace the tee fitting. After searching several auto part stores I found a universal 5/8" x 5/8" x 5/8" tee at Napa Auto Parts (part number 660-1672) for $3.00. With the two additional clamps that I needed The total price came to $5.00. A far cry from $97.07. Plus it only took me twenty minutes to fix instead of a couple of hours if I replaced the entire hose assembly that goes through the firewall to the heater core.
If you cut something too short you can replace the piece of hose (about eight inches) that comes from the engine (behind the upper radiator hose) to give yourself some extra slack. But cut as close to the metal tee as you can and you'll be fine.
Good luck,

TaurusGLenn

[Colt Hero]

CrapaTaurusWrecks:

I like your handle - very creative! Mine is based on my beloved '89 Dodge Colt - the best car I'll ever own. $5800 brand new, 13 years, 250k+ miles and no problems. I'll never see those metrics again with any car I own.

Now, back to my Crap-a-Taurus ...

Sounds like you're talking about the "T" on the thermostat-side of the engine (driver's side). That's the one with the crimped metal hoses going into it. My problem was on the other side (water pump/passenger side) where the "T" is very different. It's not clamped on in any kind of way. Sort of looks fused (or glued) on. I was replacing the water pump and wanted to just change out the section of hose coming from this "fused" "T" into the water pump (instead of buying that entire "H" hose from Ford). It's weird that this "H" hose has two totally different kind of "T"'s on either end of it, but that's the way it was done!

Anyway, the job is done. I had found a "T" at AutoZone that I was going to use, but then I just figured I'd try re-installing the original hose first since I had so surgically removed/unfused it from the old pump (instead of just cutting it off which I was tempted to do because it took so long to finally break it free).

Seems to be OK. No leaks so far.

Yeah - I wasn't going to pay the $100 for the "H" hose, either. The original hose was going back on or I was going to find another solution. The problem I saw with the AutoZone "T" was it looked like it was going to constrict flow substantially. It was a very small diameter "T" compared to the factory "H" hose "T" which looks more tubular (and about the same diameter as the hoses going into it).

If the original hose fails on me, I'll cut out the factory-fused "T" and install my own. It would be REALLY NICE if I could also install some kind of filter in the line going to the heater core so that I could just remove and clean it periodically instead of having to attach garden hose lines to flush/backflush the core. It looks like I'll never be able to get the cooling system on this car free of sediment...