The more reliable way to bypass a rear heater would be to remove the plastic
T's.........and replace them with straight hose junctions or even straight
pieces of metal pipe.
The plastic T's deteriorate and get brittle and can just break.
If you jammed a small marble into a hose I don't see how you'd get it out.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
John Goubeaux
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:23 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Heater hoses

Aren't rear heater core feed lines 1/2 inch?  The tees off  of the 5/8
line that goes fwd and comes back show a step down when going to the
rear heater.

When replacing these lines does one want to use 1/2 inch ?  I am about
to replace my heater lines and the plastic tees back aft that fork off
to the rear heater, and I have yet to find any 1/2 heater hose. The 5/8
seems readily available though.

I also read a thread regarding disabling the rear heater core, something
that might be useful for those of us in warm climes, where someone
inserted a marble in the lines that go to the rear heater core right at
the tee. This seemed like an interesting way to do it, and as noted
this allowed for easy reversal by un-doing the line and removing the
marble, if and when you need the rear heater.

-john

John Bange wrote:
> On Feb 9, 2008 8:03 AM, Jeff Clayman <jclayman@massmed.org> wrote:
>
>
>> What have people done for heater hose replacement in 87 vanagon.  Use
>> FLAPS standard heater hose or custom ones from bus depot?
>>
>
>
> Bought a 50 foot box of 5/8"  insulated heater hose off eBay for $20.
Other
> than a little difficulty getting the spring clamps over the slightly
larger
> than stock outside diameter, it works great. The rear heater uses a weird
> tapered hose which connects to a 5/8x5/8x(something smaller) tee,so that
has
> to be dealt with via Real Parts.
>
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
>