As I suspected cause of the misunderstanding lies is in the terminology. When Brad said they were "pinch style" I interpreted that as single loop wire pinch wires like used on the heater hoses at the firewall. When Brad says "not corbin " I would call what you are saying is correct also as a corbin style clamp. ( and I could be incorrect about my terminology) And what you are saying is that it is the same style clamp used as we see on the overflow reservoir except I would the color be black? ( That also fits better with the pics in the chassis an assembly manual.) So we have the explanation. I welcome any and all corrections. We all share the same goals about bringing back some of these cars as corectly as can we reasonably can.
Very helpful. Thanks for doing that. I measured the OD of a bypass hose and it was .92 inches for that particular one. So the 3 fingered pinch clamp ( the last pic) would need to be speced for a clamping range of .92 inches. I will not know until later but I think that range comes in the color black. I will update this when I verify that with a supplier.
I must say that I appreciate the efforts of the purists to "get it right." I must also say that if it looks good, goes on fast and doesn't leak, it's probably better than the factory correct item. My '92 Dakota used Corbin clamps on all of the heater hoses and never leaked. If the tower clamps were the best, we'd still be using them. My Stage 1 has a hodge-podge of types, and doesn't leak. It will never make concours, but the concours cars will never again do what mine does daily...... :3gears: Dan
Thanks the supplier did not remember the standard color for 15/16 when I ordered but I will use the zinc chromate paint if required.
Dan, Personally I think the screw-on stainless steel band clamps work the best, but if Jim used those on his cars I am pretty sure he would be upset with his judging sheets. It's actually pretty sad, years of homework go into making sure each part is correct. Then once the judges see that it's right, they ignore it, and look for flaws in other areas. Duane
To add some difficulty here...I have a 73 ( I know...I know) original 350 motor that even has the correct bypass hose (has the ribs) and it has the tower style on both ends. They are datecoded correct for this block and I know they are original. I have also seen a 100 % original 455 (73) motor that came with the pinch clamps. Both these cars were Framingham built cars..So I would guess they used different styles depending on motor size.
Pat, The clamps were installed at the Buick engine factory, not the assembly plant. Buick shipped complete units, ready to install, to GMAD. The Wittek (tower) clamps are, I'm sure, correct for your car. In fact, my '75 Skyhawk had it's correct bypass hose when I bought the car and it too had tower clamps. This is exactly why Duane and I said that the Pinch clamp was only correct for Jim's application (and one's like it) and other style clamps were used in different years and different applications. Thank you for adding information to Duane's database (his brain...). This type of information will become invaluable in years to come.
Good thread guys, very informative! Just for a laugh, the 75 estate wagon I bought with the 455 used all tower style clamps (including bypass hose).The tower clamps, spark plug wires and (some)hoses were date coded for the car so would be original (most likely, anyway). Must have been a cheap dude, never changed any of that in 20 years it was on the road!! One other interesting thing, still using the 1235777 lower pulley at that point but the waterpump pulley is about 10% smaller diameter (still with engine so can't remember #). Later Tim
