Topic: Fuel Clamps Front to Rear - 68 San Jose

[J_Speegle]

The question came up in a Member Restorations/Builds thread and we thought the discussion and finding would be better if placed so that everyone could access and not just be focused on a specific single point in production.

Starting from rear to front I'll go through a number of post to show what I've found. As always we invite what others have documented from unrestored 68 San Jose examples in this thread. Will see if we have enough examples from each of the other plants and share them in separate threads. As always would love to have more examples or even cleaner ones but that is not always possible given the situations and timing.

To make this all a little easier to understand there are four locations where a section of flexible rubber fuel line is joined to the solid fuel line or other parts.

A- Fuel sending unit to rear long fuel line
B- Long rear fuel line to shorter fuel line that travels to the engine compartment
C- (Both V8 and 6 cylinder lines) from wheel well fuel line to fuel pump
D- Fuel line from fuel pump to carburetor fuel filter



So to start fuel line and clamps from the gas tank sending unit to the rear long solid fuel line that travels from there to the spot where it is connected at the drivers side front frame rail.

Findings through out the year as I found them were consistent. Basic spring band clamps with squared off ears finished in cad or dull zinc. At the moment the best non-technical name for them though surely someone will look up the proper name 

[J_Speegle]

Moving forward on a 68 Mustang the long rear fuel line meets the forward solid fuel line from the front driver side wheel well. "B" in the illustration in first post

In this survey of my picture it appears that I found a period of production where what appeared to be the typical style used in 68 production at San Jose changed for some reason and it apparently does not appear to be the results of someone placing a single box of clamps at the wrong station.

I have more examples but choose those that best represented the early and late VINs at the beginning and ends of the patterns. Unfortunately we don't have the real build dates for these cars and are left to compare VINs. Of course since cars were not built in sequential order we would expect some over lapping of those numbers at or near the end of all patterns. Each example is identified with a shortened VIN

Wittek type/style hose clamp




Spring band clamps with squared off ears like we see above used for the fuel sender to solid line application




Wittek type/style hose clamp



More to follow

[Bob Gaines]

For clarification the "Wittek" style clamps seen in the pictures are at the torque box . I believe the clamps at the front or rear at sender were different style during the same period.

[J_Speegle]

For clarification the "Wittek" style clamps seen in the pictures are at the torque box . I believe the clamps at the front or rear at sender were different style during the same period.

Not clear on what you wrote

Fore the 8R14xxx-to about 8R16xxxx period at San Jose?

"Front or rear"? The front or rear clamp at the fuel sender short flexible hose? Is this to suggest that the each clamp was installed at a different point on the line?

Just trying to clearly understand the statement

[Bob Gaines]

Not clear on what you wrote

Fore the 8R14xxx-to about 8R16xxxx period at San Jose?

"Front or rear"? The front or rear clamp at the fuel sender short flexible hose? Is this to suggest that the each clamp was installed at a different point on the line?

Just trying to clearly understand the statement

If you showed the three different clamp points on the exact same car you would most likely see what I mean. For whatever reason the torque box clamps in this 68 context are sometimes found to be different from those found at the sender and or the front flex hose to fuel pump on the same car. 

[J_Speegle]

For clarification the "Wittek" style clamps seen in the pictures are at the torque box . I believe the clamps at the front or rear at sender were different style during the same period.

Thanks - For some reason Wittek didn't come to mind when I wrote that post originally. Have changed that to be more specific and correct

If you showed the three different clamp points on the exact same car you would most likely see what I mean. For whatever reason the torque box clamps in this 68 context are sometimes found to be different from those found at the sender and or the front flex hose to fuel pump on the same car.

OK got what you were meaning now. Yes the differences and when they happened at San Jose is the focus. We'll have to see if similar things took place at other plants. Did add an illustration and the list of the four locations of clamps in the first post to better describe things. Hope it helps to those that are looking for these details.

[J_Speegle]

Next we have the flexible fuel line connection between the solid fuel line that is in the front driver side wheel well to fuel pump. This can be located behind the shock tower on 6 cylinder cars or in front on V8 models.

Have more examples than shown but wanted to include a group of them that spanned across the production year.




And one last more from the San Jose plant pictures from 68 that the site purchased a number of years ago showing, at a poor angle, the same band squeeze clamp as the others above




Next the most difficult. The fuel line to carburetor fuel filter flex line clamps