Repro Tower Hose Clamp Warning

[w30bob]

Hi Guys,

I recently replaced the cooling system hoses on my 140 and wanted to replace the original tower hose clamps as well. So I searched around and located a couple NOS Wittek clamps, but couldn't find all the sizes I needed. Most of my original clamps could not be reused, so I checked online and found that Wittek clamps are being reproduced, primarily for the musclecar crowd. Older reviews of the repopped clamps said they were junk.......made of the wrong steel (not spring steel like the originals) and easily bent and wouldn't tighten up evenly. But I figured those comments were from 5 or more years ago and that by now the vendors had corrected the problem and were now making the clamps with the correct steel......but I was wrong......they're still crap. They sure look correct, but bend like they're made of butter. Don't waste your money. I ended up using all new worm drive clamps even though I don't like the way they look.

To be fair, the repop Wittek clamps I got from Steiner were better than the clamps I got from the automotive suppliers, but still not as good as the NOS clamps. Also the sizes of the repop clamps were a little wonky. Note that original Wittek tower clamps came in size increments of 1/32" and 1/16" because they don't have a wide range of adjustment like worm drive clamps, and were not designed to be reused (but of course many folks did).

Regards,
Bob