"I can't imagine hose clamps."

At the risk of being excommunicated from the diesel brotherhood, let me try to explain. Again.

The hose fittings that screw into the cooler body "weld" themselves into place after 2 decades or so. When removal torque is applied, the fittings strip the inside threads of the cooler and a whole host of problems follow, not the least being that your cooler is now shot in the ass.

This apocalypse doesn't even factor the Torquemada-like preparations required to change the hoses in the first place. Chief amongst the prep items is the loosening of the corrosion prone motor mount so the hose can slip under the hold down fastener! I am not making this up, do a topic search.

A clever dog MB dieseler pictorially chronicled the grinding off of the leaking pressed fittings on the cooler hoses and replacing the the whole shootin' match with (gasp) high pressure oil hose and worm clamps.

Now, any course of action that circumvents a mechanical chamber of horrors is at least worth, I think, a second look. So, I did....look. And I tried it. I bought high pressure oil hose from a hydraulic shop that is tested for operations in excess of 200 degrees. After you grind the pressed fitting off, the hose end reveals an undulation (smooth barb) midships. I worked the hose over the undulation and worm clamped on either side of it.

Now, I may not get into the Grand National Roadster Show, but I will tell you without fear of contradiction that my 40W Rotella does not leak from those hose retros. Maybe some other attempts do leak. And I am prepared to respectfully accept that a sober purist may call my non-leaking oeuvre a Mickey Mouse job. Nevertheless, before any of you knuckle busters get judgmental read all of the horror stories contained in the forum regarding this topic.

I live in Las Vegas. If anybody wants to see how I did it, I would be glad to show you. If any of the purists (who consider clamps on a MB an anathema) are disturbed by my pronouncements, I would be willing to let them put stock hose replacements on my 300SD. Really.

Joe Marroso