1993 Upper Radiator Hose

Just purchased a 1993 XJ 4.0 AW-4, The upper radiator hose is routed over the a/c compressor and then in between the battery on its way to the radiator. It kinda scares me with all of the potential places it could/and has rubbed ( I have cut up an old hose and protected the hose). I have looked a numerous pictures on the net showing the upper hose going under the rear of the compressor, over the back of the compressor, over the front( shorter hose I presume) of the compressor. Anybody with any experience on the best way to route the upper hose??? Also, when I go to purchase a new hose is there a certain brand that is right/wrong regarding the routing. Does your hose touch your battery?? Thanks

On my '95 it comes out of the top of the radiator and goes over the corner of the battery and kind of lays on top of the A/C compressor as it passed by. Granted, mine might be different since my 95 is R134. Anyway, it has a removeable hard plastic cover that fits over the upper radiator hose and protects it from getting a hole in it from rubbing on the compressor. Maybe someone took yours off over the years. When I replaced my upper radiator hose I took that cover off the old one and put it on the new one.

Edit: I replaced my upper radiator hose with a dealer one but now that I think about it I can't remember if I had to take the plastic protector off the old one or if it came with a new one. It might have been the lower radiator hose that I had to do that. Its been a while sorry. I really don't see another way for it to be run without interfering with other stuff. Maybe they got aftermarket hoses that were longer or something.

Just swapped out my rad/hoses etc...on my 95 4.0 aw4 242, got eomr hoses the top one did have the corrogated plastic guard on it (what a pain to get on though!!)

Did the hose touch the battery??

I recently replaced the hoses on my 97. The upper hose touched the battery, so I sliced a length of corrugated plastic off the old hose and put it where it was touching. Problem solved. BTW, the new hose came with new corrugated plastic.