Tower Clamps - Need Help!

[Eugene B.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

Gents,
When you say silicone sealant, can you be more specific? Brand, etc. Is this the stuff that comes in a tube and is typically blue in color?

Thanks,
Gene

[Eugene B.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

Gents,
When you say silicone sealant, can you be more specific? Brand, etc. Is this the stuff that comes in a tube and is typically blue in color?

Thanks,
Gene

[Terry M.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

If you are going to use sealant, get some black stuff. Daimler Chrysler has some for differential covers -- works real well.
My personal preference is to use silicone grease, both under the clamp and inside the hose. Be sure you are placing the clamp toward the end of the hose from the ridge on the thermostat housing, water pump nipple, or radiator tube, so that as the hose wants to pull off the clamp will be tightened against the ridge. Harder to describe in words than show with a picture. There is a picture in the front pages of most all assembly manuals.
Some of my colleagues prefer a gasket sealer called High Tac (maybe Tak?) for the inside of the hose. This essentially glues the hose to the tube, and guarantees that you will have to cut the hose to get it off. I think that is a disadvantage, but to each his own.

[Terry M.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

If you are going to use sealant, get some black stuff. Daimler Chrysler has some for differential covers -- works real well.
My personal preference is to use silicone grease, both under the clamp and inside the hose. Be sure you are placing the clamp toward the end of the hose from the ridge on the thermostat housing, water pump nipple, or radiator tube, so that as the hose wants to pull off the clamp will be tightened against the ridge. Harder to describe in words than show with a picture. There is a picture in the front pages of most all assembly manuals.
Some of my colleagues prefer a gasket sealer called High Tac (maybe Tak?) for the inside of the hose. This essentially glues the hose to the tube, and guarantees that you will have to cut the hose to get it off. I think that is a disadvantage, but to each his own.

[Joe C.]

Re: Tower Clamps - Need Help!

Ralph:

You can also use "Permatex", or "Indian Head" gasket shellac. If you can get a screwdriver between the hose and the pipe, then you can always break it loose later.
Any kind of sealant will help, but the tower clamps are absolutely inferior.

[Joe C.]

Re: Tower Clamps - Need Help!

Ralph:

You can also use "Permatex", or "Indian Head" gasket shellac. If you can get a screwdriver between the hose and the pipe, then you can always break it loose later.
Any kind of sealant will help, but the tower clamps are absolutely inferior.

[Kevin M.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

Also there was a batch of bad clamps could this be one of those?

Kevin M

[Kevin M.]

Re: Silicone Sealant

Also there was a batch of bad clamps could this be one of those?

Kevin M

[Terry M.]

[Terry M.]

[Joe C.]

Re: With all due respect

Terry:

I have no specific information on the design issues. I can only say, that in my experience, in almost every instance where I couldn't get the tower clamp to seal properly, substitution of a worm clamp solved the problem.
To each his own, I guess, but I have always had better luck with the worm type clamp. I always use shellac on the inside of the hose before installation.

Joe

[Joe C.]

Re: With all due respect

Terry:

I have no specific information on the design issues. I can only say, that in my experience, in almost every instance where I couldn't get the tower clamp to seal properly, substitution of a worm clamp solved the problem.
To each his own, I guess, but I have always had better luck with the worm type clamp. I always use shellac on the inside of the hose before installation.

Joe

[Louis Kolb]

Re: Tower Clamps - Need Help!

To stop the leaking, I swab the inside of the hose with non-hardening Permatex, install the hose and clamp as usual. This basically glues the hose to the fitting and works regardless of type clamp utilized.

[Louis Kolb]

Re: Tower Clamps - Need Help!

To stop the leaking, I swab the inside of the hose with non-hardening Permatex, install the hose and clamp as usual. This basically glues the hose to the fitting and works regardless of type clamp utilized.

[John H.]

Re: Tower Clamps - Need Help!

I've found in recent experience that the "dated reproduction" tower clamps are close to useless; they're not made by Wittek (who went out of business many years ago), and appear to be made from significantly lower quality materials, particularly the screw. I had three out of four fail mechanically and/or start leaking last summer within a few days of installation, and replaced them at the time with worm clamps (which worked fine). Since then, I replaced the worm clamps with genuine (improperly dated, but who cares) original Wittek clamps, and they work fine (installed them in the same impressions the worm clamps made, after carefully removing/re-installing the hoses for an intake swap project - didn't use any sealers).

My '69 Z/28 has its original 1969 Wittek production tower clamps, and I replaced both the upper and lower radiator hoses a couple of years ago; I carefully removed and then re-used all four of those 33-year-old (at the time) clamps, no leaks, no clamp failures. They don't make 'em like they used to