Pesty heater quick connect fitting

Now I know that many folks here have had the misfortune of having the heater hose quick connect fitting go south.

These things are just crap and are made of a pot metal that literally corodes and sort of welds itself into the water crossover

There is no quick easy way to get these little creatures out, BUTTTTTTTTTTT
There is a pretty much fool proof removal technique that will save you from having to buy a new crossover.

Now just for the record very few of these will come out by using a wrench and generally break off.
Forget the easyout too as all it does it chew the remaining piece of the fitting to bits and further try ones patience.

OK that said here is the trick. Remove the water crossover from the engine and get it clamped gently in a vise so you can get at the fitting.
Now using a hack saw cut the old fitting off about 3/16 out from the crossover.
Now it gets delicate, patience is the key not speed and brut force.
Use a small dumore or die grinder with a little ball bur and cut through the fitting on the inside all the way until you just start to see the tops of the threads showing. Go and cut the same way on the opposite side of the fitting until you just see threads.
Be careful, when I say just see I mean just see.
Stow the grinder and gather up a small capping chisel and a little ball pean hammer.
Carefully place the chissel up against the crossover on either side of one of the cuts you made on the fitting. Tap with the hammer to dislodge the halves of the old fitting.
Once the pieces come out you can run a 1/2" pipe tap in to clean out the threads and you are good to go.
I have used this method many times to remove these things.
I dont recommend doing it on the engine as you could drop pieces of the old fitting down into the water passage.

It may not hurt but I dont see this as being a good thing.

I just finished doing this manuever on a dual stat housing I bought from John 8662 for my DaHooooley.

Took about 20 minutes from start to finish including get the tools and puting them away afterwards.

Replace the fitting with a steel unit and use high temp silicone sealer on the threads and you will never have to cuss the thing again.

The material that the original fitting is made of just simply does not get along well with the aluminum crossover at all.

One final word, it is very possible that you can ding the threads a little. Not to worry as long as you dont totally obliterate a section of thread the new parts will seal fine as this is a tapered thread.
When you run the tap in to chase the threads dont get over zellous with the tap and run it any deeper that the original threads otherwise you might run out of threads on the new fitting before its tight.

One final solution is if the threads just turn out horrid you can clean everything up well afterwards and then use JB weld when you install the new steel fitting.

This could be the last time you will remove it though. I had to do one that way to get it to stop leaking as the fellow who brought it to me had spent some serious time thrashing the thing before I got to it. :eek:

I hope this will help someone.
The secret is patience and take your time.
Daddy taught me at an early age the art of removing broken taps from blind holes.

DONT BREAK THEM OFF :D 10-32 taps can be a real nasty thing to extract out of cast iron. :(

Later troops

Robyn

Good Day!

Boy, am I glad I don't have to pay for robyns' (& many others here) advice - no way could I afford to pay what it's worth.

"Use a small dumore or die grinder with a little ball bur and cut through the fitting on the inside all the way until you just start to see the tops of the threads showing." You can do the same with a hack saw blade, mounted if necessary (or available) in a holder. (Hardware stores sell them & they're cheap; for when like this you need the blade but not the normal hack saw frame.) I did this once on a pipe fitting in my house; in fact, I used the Sawzall, not a hack saw blade. Even though I dinged the female threads a little, it doesn't leak a drop, although it's important to remember this fitting is a DWV drain - no pressure.

Blessings!

A grinder, hack saw, torch and oh dont forget the big hammer can fix almost anything. :D Almost


Robyn

Coat liberally with pipe dope and work it in well. Keep the air and the Dex Cool separated and you'll have no problem.

Sounds good to me.
GM must have gotten a real deal on them potmetal quick couplers as they used them things across the product line.

Probably saved them a million or so $$$ but what a POS.:eek:

:D

Robyn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robyn

Sounds good to me.
GM must have gotten a real deal on them potmetal quick couplers as they used them things across the product line.

Probably saved them a million or so $$$ but what a POS.:eek:

:D

Robyn

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Sounds like the glow controller temp switch on humvees, I've had to replace a few of those while in the army and they sure weren't much fun!


I used to use a hacksaw blade to cut through the big bronze steering knuckle bushings on Marklift/Terex boomlifts, just cut nice and evenly till you hear "tink!" and the bushing will come right out. No need giving yourself tennis elbow pounding on them with a bushing driver, and the hacksaw is faster anyway.

OH yessss

Had a boss once who always said. "take the toughest job and give it to tha laziest SOB and they will figure out an easy way to do it" :D
He was right yessssssssssss :)

More times than not there is an easy way to fix some of the nastiest things that need fixing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robyn

OH yessss

Had a boss once who always said. "take the toughest job and give it to tha laziest SOB and they will figure out an easy way to do it" :D
He was right yessssssssssss :)

More times than not there is an easy way to fix some of the nastiest things that need fixing

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That woudn't have been a man by the name of B. Tiger was it?

Nope, fellows name was Jim Wiseman. Really nice fellow to work for.
If you had a disagreement you had it out and it was over with.
He always said a butt chewing in private and praise in public.

Was a great guy to work for and once he trusted you it was even easier.
Too bad all bosses are not that nice.
The fellow that replaced him was a Real Piece Of Work, dont ya Know.
Fought with him for far too long before I shoved off to smoother waters.

Ah well such is life

Robyn

Finally, after all these years, someone agrees with me. Laziness is the mother of invention.

Yup, sure looks that way doesn't it? :D

That fitting I've noted an accasional drip --

Now it's dripping -

So your telling me that fitting screwed into the thermostate housing Is likely to not come out for me?

Soak with blaster?

I might get Lucky?

But expect the worst?

Forget it, throw a grenade under the hood, slam it closed & run in the shop to find my grinder?

I would talk bad about the fitting but I hope I can still woe it to my thinking?

I put barely the pressure to remove a valve stem cap & she BROKE right off!!!!

:eek:

I was warned !

I just cant say enough nasty things about that potmetal POS :(

The one on DaHooooley is nasty looking but Im going to swap in the dual stat crossover this spring/summer and be done with it.

The steel replacements from such places as NAPA seem to be just fine.
A lot of folks just use a barb fitting and regular heater hose and make a nice bend with copper or??? to get things back around the turbo outlet and into the heater.

I have always replaced the fitting with the steel ones and used a new GM hose assembly as it looks very clean and fits nice.

If you surgically remove the old one from the crossover you can save the crossover and be going in short order. Best way is to remove the crossover and get it in a vise where you can work on it and then retap the hole and wash it all out good.

Good luck

Robyn

As I remember years ago I had the same problem on the ol 93. That fitting screws into the crossover I believe. I removed it and installed a threaded barb fitting and ran heater hose in place of the pipe that was on the original installation. No more problems
Denny

What are the chances of the aluminum rigid line being OK and just replacing the quick connect fitting with new steel one from NAPA???

I read on the place I could squeeze the black ring in on the quick connect and pull the hard line out (after unbolting it and preparing for disconnect). I assume clean it up and reuse it as a new black lock ring comes with the new quick connect.

I am guessing its not just that easy and requires wiggling and tugging just so to keep it from bending and messing things up.

Does the aluminum rigid pipe corrode too or get deformed assembling it such that its normally a one time use???

The line will many times come right out after removing the retaining bolt on the manifold.

If the end that goes into the connector is not all corroded right in front of the nub where the lock snaps in it should be fine.

You can use a small brass brush and or some fine emery paper to clean this up.

If ther is not a nasty groove where the Oring was riding then it should do fine. Use some silicone grease on the tube end and thing will probably do well.
The issue is geting the old quick coupler out.

I have posted a complete blow by blow tutorial on removing those nasty little creatures previously.

Dont even try a wrench and an easyout is generally a waste of time.
Cut it off flush (Remove crossover) and cut the connector in half in two places 180 apart and break the pieces out in a couple chunks with a caping chisel.

***Just a note***. One night a few years ago we were getting ready to take a little trip and I opened the hood to check the oil and do a quicky looookem over.
I yanked the dip stick and all is ok. Squeezed the upper radiator hose and took note of the coolant level gently bouncing in the holding tank over yonder on the firewall.

Just a quicky look around and Oh my, my eyes fell upon a trickle of green (Very small) running down the quick connector and it seemed to be coming from right in the middle of the flat on the connector.

HMMMMMMMMM touched the spot lightly with a finger and Woooooooooosh the side of the sucker opened up and hosed me in the face with fairly hot coolant.

I wont repeat the colorful phrases and mixed and matched language that followed.

It was too late to tear it apart, so after the coolant pressure was off and I could get close to it again, there was a neat little hole about 3/16" in the side of the coupler.

If you look close at the factory units there is a little round dimple on one or more of the flats. The sucker had coroded to the point that my touch set it off.

Well now what, I decided that maybe a quicky fix was possible. Took a short piece of heater hose and split it in half, wrapped it around the offending beast, covering the hole.
Next a slapped a stainless hose clamp on top of the area of the hole and tightened it down. :D Worked fine and in fact that fix remained until I had the engine out for the overhaul almost a year later.

So you can see whyI hold the little pot metal couplers in such contempt. My face got burned a bit on that one. Not to mention at all that they are such a bitch to get out.

We all know better than to pop a radiator cap but never expect a coupler like that to rupture in the side. Oh yeah buddy.

Have fun :D

Robyn

Dont even try a wrench and an easyout is generally a waste of time = Wisdom

"IF" the connector is the factory one, they have an orange silicone sealer that is applied to the threads and for some reason along with the antifreeze and other factors turns into an almost impentrable cement.

The easyout actually will tend to expand the coupler even tighter into the theads.

The last one I took out was on a dual stat housing that one of our members sent me after tiring of the battle and replacing it with a fresh one.

Took about 10 minutes with a small carbide bur in the die grinder to part the little beast and coax it out. I quick trip through with a pipe tap and the little critter is ready to go again.

I must point out that this is not a job that would be easy on the truck with all the crap thats in close proximity.

I wont say it cant be done but I personally would prefer not to lodge all the crap that usually comes out when you start excavating into the cooling system.

I am just anal that way. :eek:

Keep one thing in mind, its not all that hard to fix, just a PITA is all. :D

Once the old one is gone and the threads are clean and the new steel NAPA one is in, things will never be this ugly ever again, at least with this part. :rolleyes:

I have seen many mechanics that replace the coupler with a brass hose barb and add a short hose on the barb and over the bump on the aluminum pipe, clamp it up and call it good.

I prefer the steel coupler route as it looks top shelf and not as a patch job. BUTTTTTTTTT the hose barb, hose and clamps is a safe and reliable fix.

I just like to see a factory, sanitary look under the hood, just me being anal is all.

:D:D:D:D

Robyn

Had my turn at this stupid business this last weekend, started with changing the heater core, and while I had coolant all over the garage floor I figured I may as well replace the heater hose outlet to the rad, and do something about the quick connector.

It wasn't leaking, I just wanted it gone.

Of course I tried a wrench, and snapped it off with about half as much effort as it takes to turn your ignition key.

Remove the crossover, hacksaw, chisel away, got a new steel one from NAPA, good a time as any to replace that 1" hose between the crossover and water pump.

Somehow managed to lose about 1/4" off the end of the aluminum pipe at the end, rotted off, it was still in the old connector, so it leaked immediately as I was filling the surge tank.

So I ended up with a brass 5/8" barb from the plumbing section at Rona, and used a short piece of 5/8" hose to connect the barb with the end of the aluminum pipe, over the flange and clamped them together.

Good enough for now, probably will be good enough until it leaks...

Chickenhunterbob
The quick connector has a restrictor (rubber disc below O ring) in it to slow the coolant flow through the heater core, without this restrictor your heater perfomance will probably be poor, not that it gets cold in winterpeg:D :D. I believe that without the restrictor the flow is to fast through the heater to properly extract heat from the coolant:confused:. I have had this problem before when I used a plumbing nipple instead of an automotive nipple. Automotive nipples usually have a much smaller ID than plumbing nipples
Good luck
Ron

My turn!! Noticed a nice trail of green stuff while laying under the '83. Popped the hood and see the corrosion and leakeage around the connector going into the crossover from the water pump hose. Just dandy! Just changed the oil, lubed and rotated the tires this weekend and thought I was set for the next few cold winter months. It seems plans always get changed for ya - the higher power in charge!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Subzilla

My turn!! Noticed a nice trail of green stuff while laying under the '83. Popped the hood and see the corrosion and leakeage around the connector going into the crossover from the water pump hose. Just dandy! Just changed the oil, lubed and rotated the tires this weekend and thought I was set for the next few cold winter months. It seems plans always get changed for ya - the higher power in charge!

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"It's always SOMETHING!" - Gilda Radner as Roseanne Roseannadanna, Saturday Night Live :D

Robyn and others, is this the NAPA part ya'll got?? http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPage...Heater+Fitting

I found this on their website and just wanted to confirm the right part before I go in and get the deer-in-the-headlights look when I ask for the 2 connectors that go in the coolant crossover.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Subzilla

Robyn and others, is this the NAPA part ya'll got?? http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPage...Heater+Fitting

I found this on their website and just wanted to confirm the right part before I go in and get the deer-in-the-headlights look when I ask for the 2 connectors that go in the coolant crossover.

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Something very much like that, except you need 3/4NPT on the threaded end and a 1/2" barb. I looked through the book at NAPA and they had literally hundreds of similar fittings, not the one I needed though.

I guess I got real lucky. Earlier this year I removed the lower intake manifold to install a fsd resistor. Well, by the time I finished the quick coupler had started a very small leak while running. The next day or so, I used a wrench and removed it and installed one from carquest. It took me like 10 minutes or so. I guess my luck came from me moving the pipe around so much that I caused it to leak, whereas most of you it started leaking from time and corrosion, etc.

I don't know, I guess I got real lucky from all the stories you guys have.

Robyn, I wanted to thank you for all the great advice you offered on this fitting.

I was mentally, physically and dare I say it emotionally prepared to go thru the fitting replacement nightmare.

For some unknown reason, I was able to backout my original fitting intact.

You could've knocked me over with a feather.

All I can assume is Murphy's Law applied. Had I not been so well armed, surely it would've self-destructed.

Anyhoo, I'm off to play the lotto, my stars are aligned today!

Jim

Glad you had good luck.

The steel replacements from the aftermarket seem ok or at least they dont crumble and come apart.

Best

Robyn

GM also has new ones that are made of a quality material now.

I've busted those things off countless times. I just bought a drill bit and tap to make new threads in the intake. Those bits of pot metal get welded in there so tight that even if you don't get the bit perfectly straight / centered you can still cut new threads into everything without any bits of pot metal dislodging themselves. I've yet to have a leak, and it only takes about 2 min to drill / tap :)