What is your procedure when working with hoses?
 

when you work on an engine (or anything really) that has a lot of similar looking hoses (vacuum or not) that plug into other similar-looking nozzles, how do you keep them all straight to avoid mixing them up when you reassemble it?

what is your method? do you use a digital camera? do you use pencil and paper? do you somehow label what goes where? how do you do it?

Jen-

I don't generally need to worry about mixing up hoses as , at least in my mind, are all straightforward in all the vehicles I own. It helps to understand the system you are working with- how it operates and flows.

However, I am frequently at a loss on electrical matters and often will use duct tape marked with a Sharpie permanent marker to label where things go when I start ripping into circuits.

A digital camera is also helpful to record things, but I find that it gets in the way of what I am doing if I pick it up frequently.

Rick

color coded
 

note that the stripes on the sides of the hoses are different...(i think) and will help you trace them.

I let them do whatever they want as long as they are flexible :D
Seriously, I use a digital camera now, but the best method overall for me has always been drawing crude diagrams with notes in a notebook with a pencil.

Any of that confusing stuff, like electrical wires, or fuel linkages, and I use my digital camera.

I take pictures first, and then I *look* at the pictures and make sure I can see the things that I'm going to be working on. Digital pictures are free if you have the camera, so take a bunch. With and without flash.

Over the years I've found that I'm much better at taking stuff apart than I am putting stuff back together. I bet I still got "extra" pieces of my first car someplace...

- Patrick

I have done both in the past, digital camera and labeling ends.

Nowadays I must be having good luck because everything usually goes back together on the first try with no problems ;)

I take alot of pictures when I am taking one apart to document locations.

I don't have a camera, and I can't take pictures well anyway. It's ironic, because my sister is a professional entertainment photographer (and a damned good one, too). I've always used the narrow masking tape & magic marker method of labelling. I find it best to keep it simple, too. The first thing I disconnect will be labelled with a "1" on both ends, the second with a "2", and so on. This also helps with the order of putting things back together, because I can just start with the highest number and work my way back down to "1". I once helped my stepbrother with a head gasket replacement on his former late 80's Acura Integra with dual overhead cams and incredibly complicated-looking fuel injection. I don't think I would have been able to keep that mess straight with only pictures.

Depending on the type and size of items being marked, I've had good luck with numbered clothes pins, too. Less tape-stuck-on-tape to remove/fight with, and reusable,too.

I have a brother labler I use to tag every line and wire along with the place it came off of.