Design fault? (Surely not!)

[fasterbyelan]

We use Spiral Wrap on F1 cars and get it from a specialist supplier (its cheaper). It is however available from RS. See - http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/rswww/subRa ... cheID=ukie

[1964 S1]

aarrggghhh, good comeback concerning straight lining Americans. Luckily we bought enough new Elans back then to help keep the marque afloat. It sounds like changing the length of the hose may solve your problem.

[Greg Foster]

Install a section of larger heater hose like a sleeve directly over the new one you install, at the area you want to protect .
Greg
72+2

[hatman]

Good idea in theory Greg but, in practice there just isn't enough room for an additional 'outer' sleeve (hence the existing problem) and adding one would certainly cause binding against the steering column clamp with possible safety implications.

[purplepete]

What sort of bore is this pipe??Presumably you only need a short length of spirowrap-if you are in uk,and if you dont mind using secondhand,i've got a chunk of the spiro you can have,or,how about stainless overbraid?-if i can cut the b.stuff,
P.m me if its any use to you!

[john.p.clegg]

Check out the thickness of the heater hose,the wall can vary quite a bit,from1/16 to 1/8,try fitting a thinner wall hose,if that fails a short length of 15mm copper pie can be inserted aswell as or in lieu of the section in peril....
John

[twincamman]

how about moving the hose inboard and drilling a new hole ---im sure old C A B C wont mind --- -ed

[hatman]

Thanks for all your input fellas and for your spirowrap offer Purple. I was initially about to pm you to take you up on the offer but I've since re-bodged it; the ally tube referred to earlier was a bit on the narrow side and a loose fit so, rather than find out the hard way that it wasn't the answer, I removed it and contrived to insert a short length of central heating copper pipe to re-connect where I'd chopped the hose in half.

So I've now got copper pipe running alongside the steering column clamp rather than the vulnerable rubber hose. I'd originally tried to get the copper pipe in, to no avail as it is fractionally wider than the half inch internal diameter of the hose. However, a number of shallow saw cuts in each end of the copper pipe allowed me to gently hammer an inward-facing lip which, with a spot of lubrication from some neat antifreeze, allowed the pipe to be rammed just far enough into the ends of the hose to give sufficient purchase for the jubilees clips. I've topped up the coolant and run the engine up to temperature and all seems fine. I'll also now try to devise some way of holding the pipe away from the clamp if at all possible - as suggested by one of the earlier posters, but I do seem to be out of trouble.