Thinking about hoses

[alpinekid]

I'm working on the coolant hoses. The heater ?return? hose has crimp on connections on at least one end and in the middle.
Are these factor original, maybe 26yrs old?
There is a line from the top of the water pump to the heater with a funny connector at the heater end.

The one from the heater has a crimp-on tee. One side goes back to the bottom of the radiator and the other, the bigger one, goes to the head. Coming out of the heater there is, what looks like a nonstandard plastic disconnect type of connector. Same type as the heater ?supply? side.

The return to the radiator has some flex from the tee to hard line that routes it around the alternator and then crimp-on the flex and flex down to the radiator where there is hose clamp.
In all a very involved assemble with maybe a quick disconnect at the heater, a band clamp at the head and a band clamp at the radiator.
Is this a factory part? I didnt think to ask if the radiator shop would fab something like this.


Any thoughts or advice

[cadillackid]

when those van chassis were built, they typically were built with the factory dash heater hooked up as normal.. when a bus builder came along, they would cut the supply and return heater hoses. and insert a T to back to the rear heater.. they may have used regular clamps, or crimped on ends.. although most times the crimps i saw were in the A/C lines and not the heater lines.. they did make crimp clamps though.. so chances are that goes to your rear heater and removing the T and putting the lines back together would give you your dash heat if you want to take out the rear unit.
-Christopher