 One of the most miserable, frustrating and aggravating jobs I have ever done is to put the connectors on braided hoses. The problem was always the same?sliding the fitting ring over the hose without causing the braiding to unravel. Well, that problem is history. The simple solution is to slightly chamfer the leading edge of the ring on the I.D. (inner diameter). See Photo #1 and Photo #2. Don?t relax yet?your only about fifty percent home.
 Photo #1 |
 Photo #2 | To successfully assemble the ring on the hose, you must begin with a hose end that has no unraveled braiding on the ends. That means cutting the hose to length without unraveling the braiding in the process. You have two options. You can control this unraveling by wrapping the area where the cut will be made with plastic electrical tape or duct tape? two wraps is adequate. Then make your cut with a hacksaw through the center of the tape. See Photo #3. Use the finest hacksaw blade you can get?.32 teeth per inch or finer?with a light downward force. Let the
blade do the cutting. The idea is to avoid snagging the braided wires causing the braiding to unravel. Note if you have the equipment, you could substitute an abrasive disc cutter for the hacksaw. An alternative to electrical tape or duct tape is to clamp the hose with a small worm drive hose clamp, then make your saw-cut next to the clamp. This has the added benefit of squeezing the hose a little undersize for easier assembly. To provide added stability to the hose at the cut point, insert a
 Photo #3 | wooden dowel (same size as the I.D.) in the hose before applying the clamp. Don't forget to remove the wooden dowels! After cutting the hose, trim any loose wires with side cutters. These wires are tough, so don't try cutting too many at one time. Don't tug on the wires when trimming, because it will cause the braiding to unravel. With the tape still in place, start the braided hose into the ring (note that if you used the hose clamp, ignore any reference to tape). It's a good idea to place the ring on a workbench, chamfered end up, when starting to feed the hose into the ring. You may have to use a small straight blade screwdriver to help feed the hose/braiding into the ring. Once started, place the ring into a vice and remove the tape while holding the hose in position against the ring. I do this by myself, but an extra hand would be helpful in removing the tape. After removing the tape, advance the hose into the ring with a rotating motion. Advance the hose until you contact the I.D. threads in the ring.
Finally, spray the I.D. of the ring and the O.D. of the threaded end of the fitting with silicone. Thread the ring and hose onto the fitting. Blow through the hose with compressed air to clear away any loose particles. The finished product will look great, and you?ll have kept your sanity. See Photo #4.
 Photo #4 | Bonus tip: You can eliminate the problem of inserting braided throttle and kick-down cables into aluminum ferrules by drilling the I.D. of the ferrule a bit larger.
Special thanks goes out to Rick Ashford, Darwin DeGroff, John Kitz and "wheels1950" for their contributions to this article.
Dick Z
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