At 07:10 AM 5/19/2004, David Brodbeck wrote:

>FWIW, I've seen people make 'fake' barbs on copper fittings by putting a
>circle of copper wire around the end and soldering.  I saw this done with
>a cooling hose fitting that had been custom-made for a Subaru conversion.
>I think they used 14 ga. wire.  The end result is the same, you have a
>smooth ridge that the hose clamp, once properly secured, can't be pushed
>over.

That may have been mine you saw. There's some photos of it at the
subaruvanagon website...

It's not that hard to put barbs on the end of a piece of pipe.
A piece of wire can be wrapped around it and soldered or welded on.
Or cut a slice of a pipe coupling or a slightly larger piece of pipe to
make a ring that can be soldered or welded on.
If you're working with stainless and don't have a way to weld a barb
on, you can just use some JB weld or epoxy to build up a ridge on
the end of the pipe.

  Do what you need to do to put a barb or ridge on your coolant pipes,
but don't EVER trust a clamped rubber hose to stay on a smooth
  un-barbed pipe.  BTDT, don't really wanna talk about it.   )-:
Suffice it to say, I wised up on that one decades ago...

>  I've heard too many stories of them popping off
>at inopportune moments.

I've BEEN that horror story. Fortunately I was young and the long
walk didn't hurt me any.

>  The problem with risking this on a cooling system
>is the pressure is highest right at the moments when you really can't
>afford to lose a hose.

Yeah, funny how that works...
Don't take the chance. Barb those home-made those coolant pipes!!

Steve
'86 Westy "Escape Pod"