Just finished taking a second shower and popping open a St. Pauli Girl. After finishing my form 1040, it was around 22:30 and I wasn’t feeling sleepy, so I went outside and fixed the leaky heater hoses on the FJ80. Essentially, the ends of hte hoses that go to the thermostat neck and water pump were deformed from age and reaction to various fluids and had started to leak. The OEM Toyota wire-style hose clamps were deeply cut into the rubber and not providing enough squeeze. I undid the clamps, pried the ends of the hoses off the barb fittings with a flat screwdriver, cut a couple of centimeters off the ends with EMT shears, cleaned the fittings with a kitchen scouring pad, and reassembled the hose ends. Thankfully, there was enough excess play in the hoses to allow for this. After tightening everything up and refilling the radiator and reservoir, I ran it up to operating temperature and everything seemed to be holding. Damn, I’m tired now…
Difficulty: easy/moderate
Tools needed:
- 10mm 1/4″ drive socket wrench or ratcheting box wrench
- flat screwdriver
- EMT shears
- scouring pad
- LED head lamp
Supplies needed:
- Coolant
- distilled water
- waterless hand cleaner
- paper towels or rags
Time: about 45-minutes
0 Responses to “Midnight Leak Repair”