Small Worm-Style Hose Clamp Failures in Automotive Applications
What is typically done with a leak at a small worm-style (worm gear) hose clamp? Just keep tightening it until the leak stops! Figure 1 is the anatomy of the small worm-style hose clamp. The over-torqueing of small worm-style hose clamps can lead to serious problems. Proper torque is around 10 to 15 in-lb, but rarely does anyone actually use a torque wrench to apply the clamp.
This is usually done by feel, but if the hose material starts to extrude through the grooves in the hose clamp, this is probably too much torque, as illustrated in Figure 2.