help - radiator, tranny cooler line

I've read all about how to do the lower "quick disconnect" transmission line into the radiator. What about the upper line? I'm having trouble with that. Supposedly, it just unbolts. If I turn the larger bolt, it obviously twists the transmission line. Am I supposed to hold the larger bolt and twist the smaller bolt into it? I'm having trouble doing that, it seems stuck. Help?

Yea use two wrenches, this connection is brass on brass and it probably is just corroded.

Yup - anytime you have a flare fitting like that, you'll want two wrenches - preferably, with a "flare nut" wrench on the tube nut.

What's a "flare nut wrench?" Easy - think "box end" wrench with only one side cut out. It grips the nut on FIVE sides - since they're relatively soft, this is a good idea. You will certainly want one to put the new fitting IN - it really sucks to round them off on installation, because you'll forget by the time you need to change it again...

You won't need too many flare nut wrenches - each one has two sizes on it anyhow. However, you will need a total of four or five to do all the work that wants them - brakes, transmission cooler lines, and power steering.

5-90

5-90 said:

.What's a "flare nut wrench?" Easy - think "box end" wrench with only one side cut out. It grips the nut on FIVE sides 5-90

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5-90 said:

since they're relatively soft, this is a good idea.5-90

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x10!

Saudade said:

x10!

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Thanks - I didn't have a pic handy, and my Treo's camera isn't the greatest for detail...

Yep - you want those! And, for God's sake, don't even bother with a crescent wrench - you might as well just use vise grips right off...

5-90

oh, I forgot another question - how do I cap off the transmission cooler lines to prevent leaking, whilst I'm swapping out the radiators?

Another one - does the auxiliary transmission cooler work in place of the in-radiator cooler, or in addition to (for those XJs so equipped)?

Thanks

BSH said:

oh, I forgot another question - how do I cap off the transmission cooler lines to prevent leaking, whilst I'm swapping out the radiators?

Another one - does the auxiliary transmission cooler work in place of the in-radiator cooler, or in addition to (for those XJs so equipped)?

Thanks

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You don't need to cap it off barely any fluid will leak out. If your going to run an auxilary cooler you'll want to run it in addition to the factory one in the radiator. You live in Pa and I assume it gets pretty cold up there so in the winter time the in-radiator cooler will help bring the tranny fluid up to temp quicker. I run an auxilary cooler and have it on a thermostat but that's not really necessary.

You can just stick heater hose caps, vacuum caps, or something like that on there - but you shouldn't get too much leakage anyhow.

As I recall, the OEM Auxiliary cooler works in concert with the internal job, but I've not had any ill effects from bypassing the internal cooler entirely. I'd like to do the job right on the next few I do, and get a thermostatic valve (bypasses the cooler until a certain temperature is reached, then includes the cooler,) and continue NOT using the internal cooler - since you'll get slightly more efficient engine cooling as a result (even with the transmission cooler in front of the radiator, you're not adding as much thermal load to it as you are with expecting the coolant to cool both the engine AND the transmission!) I think B&M & Trans-Dapt both make kits including those valves, and they probably sell them separately.

I'd tell you what size caps you can use, but I've long since converted to -6AN, and just use -6 caps and plugs when I have to service the thing...

5-90

Another thing to be gained by 5-90's recipie in the preceding post is peace of mind. I had the loop in the radiator fail and coolant got into the transmission. The water degrades the adhesive that bonds the friction plates in place in the tranny and this forced me to do a rebuild for mucho dinero. I will NEVER buy another radiator of that brand. In reality, the chances of this type of failure are fairly slim, but once is enough! Bill-93XJ

Bill-93XJ said:

Another thing to be gained by 5-90's recipie in the preceding post is peace of mind. I had the loop in the radiator fail and coolant got into the transmission. The water degrades the adhesive that bonds the friction plates in place in the tranny and this forced me to do a rebuild for mucho dinero. I will NEVER buy another radiator of that brand. In reality, the chances of this type of failure are fairly slim, but once is enough! Bill-93XJ

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Might one enquire as to which brand, and what (if any) failure analysis was done? Was it internal corrosion, or a failed braze/solder join?

Meanwhile, there's a reason I keep recommending Modine - I haven't had one fail in 15 years that I can recall (probably more...)

5-90

Universal Radiator out of Pittsburg, PA. I will never buy another one of those pieces o'junk. GDI or Modine for me. Bill-93XJ

Bill-93XJ said:

Universal Radiator out of Pittsburg, PA. I will never buy another one of those pieces o'junk. GDI or Modine for me. Bill-93XJ

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Thank you. How about the other part of my question - what FA was done, and what was determined to be the cause of the failure? Shonky materials, shonky assembly, or what? Just curious...

I've got to pat myself on the back here - I've been using Modine for about 20 years without incident...

5-90

when i changed my radiator. the fluid that leaked was not enough to throw it out of range.

Well, I don't seem to have the right size flare nut wrench. Anybody recall just what I need? I can't really see how I'd get a flare nut wrench onto the brass inner nut, anyway.

And this thing's really stuck. I can't get it to turn into the large outer nut at all. Any suggestions? I think I need some real wrenching help. I'm new at this.