flat plates rub also - maybe a plastic flat plate would be ok.
The mock up I posted was a piece of thin 1/8" plastic sheet. I have a LOT of that to practice with.
It may be a moot point as other options for routing are being considered. No hard decisions have been made, this is all very fluid.
Back on point:
The path through the alignment cam hole does work but carries with it the risk of tire contact while also limiting the options for wider wheels and tires in the future.
Personally, I would not choose this for myself. Nothing is perfect but some options have drawbacks that are worse than others.
I'm considering the possibility of routing the lines from the 4 port manifold THIS way:
Green for A/C and orange for heater.
The drawback of routing the lines here was that the fender apron didn't have a flat enough section to allow this manifold:
...to lay completely flat without distortion. This alone kiboshed the idea.
I didn't like the idea of warping the manifold base or the fender apron.
I conferred with Dwayne. He is concerned about the risk of tire contact to the lines and is now interested in routing the lines in the engine bay, maybe like this:
Okay, This may work but as stated before, clearance on the interior side between the firewall and evaporator fittings is tight. Real tight for the smaller #6 line. Putting the lines in the engine side of the firewall real close to the fender apron helps some but it still will look like crowded spaghetti inside. The A/C hoses don't like to make tight bends. My concern was the delicate ends for the #6 and #10 at the evaporator end might be stressed and break. Moving all 4 lines further away from the centerline helps immensely.
I came up with this: The 4 port manifold can stay in place where it is, in the wheel well part of the firewall. Leaving it there serves many functions.
One, the 4 holes are already drilled in the firewall and the manifold is in place. The A/C fittings and hoses are in place but have yet to be crimped.
The hose routing is clean and gently curved. The heater fittings are in but the hoses have yet to be cut to fit. That will be simple. To me, this works and should stay in place.
Again, the reason that THIS position:
...was abandoned was because of how the square-ish 4 port manifold wouldn't lay flat on the irregular shaped apron but....what if I used individual fittings?
What if I used something like this for the heater hoses....
....and something like these for the #6 and #10 lines?
The smaller footprint of each of these can lay flat on the apron. Using these can allow us to avoid any tire contact issues by routing the lines behind the wheel, close to the firewall and apron.
I know that I'm a hopeless optimist but this seems like a winner.
