Quote:
Originally Posted by Shern
So, I called a local hose shop about rebuilding mine and they quoted me around $85 a hose.
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What kind of crimper did you buy? And ferules? Seems fairly straight forward once you dremel the original crimps.
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$85 for a finished pro-crimped hose isn't bad since AC hose stock alone runs perhaps $6/ft on ebay. I recommend cutting the upper hose 1" longer, to better clear that evil p.s. belt. Insure you use "barrier" hose which has an impermeable liner (Viton I think). About all there is today, though some old rubber-only hose stock might still be floating around. ykobayashi says #12 size, so I would have used hose from the roll for my 300D suction hoses. I bought "reduced barrier" size and I recall #10 ferrules fit perfectly, as my research suggested, indeed I needed a little oil to slide them over the hose. I have the manual Master Cool crimper. I paid maybe $120 for a used one on ebay, which looks new. I'll probably sell it for $120 when done. So far, I've used it for many AC, coolant, and oil hoses on many of my 7 vehicles. ykobayashi's crimped ferrules looking a bit uneven and wrinkled might be if they were too loose on the hose. I have found some that slide over the hose too easy. Better if you have to work a bit to slide the ferrule over the hose.
Cutting off the OE ferrules is the hard part since M-B used very thick ferrules (over-kill?). You would likely shatter some Dremel cutting wheels before getting thru one. I used an abrasive cutting blade on an electric die grinder (HF $14 grinder) the first time. It makes some smell as it cuts into the rubber past the ferrule. For later ones, I've mostly used a hacksaw, oriented at an angle so it doesn't cut into the tube. Once you cut a slit, you must pry the shell off with screwdrivers and pliers and cut where the shell is welded to the tubing on M-B ones (similar to Coll-O-Crimp brand?). Once I get a bit of the shell pried up, I clamp it in a bench vise to rotate it open more, kind of like shelling a shrimp. It takes much force w/ those thick ferrules.
I am sure that using 2 Oeticker stepless ear clamps at each connection would be fine. I would set the ears 180 deg apart to insure no gaps in the clamping force. You don't need the special pliers tool if you have nail-puller pliers. I have some w/ very long handles. Another idea is the PEX crimps at Home Depot (use similar plier crimpers), but you would need to research dimensions.