Surprising Difficulty Getting Hose Clamps on Heater Hose Reducer

[rsiegel]

Someone please sanity-check me here. I'm trying to do something very simple -- replace the heater hose that runs from the blower in the engine compartment, beneath the a/c compressor, through the right rear of the engine tray, and connects to the back of the right heat exchanger. On a car with a/c, this is actually two hoses -- a long 2" hose that runs most of the length, and a short 2 1/2" hose. On a non-air-conditioned car, the whole hose is 2 1/2", but for a/c cars, the reduced diameter is needed to squeeze through the gap under the compressor. The hoses are connected using a reducer.

I didn't look at the reducer closely enough when I took it and the old hoses out. Does the reducer sit mostly in the engine compartment (both hose clamps in the engine compartment), or mostly beneath the car (both hose clamps beneath the car), or does it split the difference (2" hose clamp in the engine compartment, 2 1/2" clamp beneath the car)? I'm having the damnedest time dealing with it. It's easiest assembling both hoses, the reducer, and the clamps, and threading it through from beneath the car, but then the long hose doesn't seem to quite reach the blower motor. And if the clamps have to go beneath the compressor, there's very little room to get them on. I've swung the compressor off its stand and it's still very difficult. Do you need to take the stand out?

(yes. it's come to this. I'm posting asking a question about hose clamps...