Coolant leak diagnosis (1 Viewer)

[mark71]

I learned something new today re: the transmission heat exchanger.

It has already been said but I’ll say it again, this forum rocks!

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

It’s not ATF but I’m not going to lick the tranny to verify.

The more I think about it, the more I think this is residue from spilling coolant when we did the heater tees.

Learned something new in this thread, and all @kcjaz had to do was "lick the tranny"

 

[GOLIGHTLY]

Learned something new in this thread, and all @kcjaz had to do was "lick the tranny"

This is a safe and accepting space.

 

[Willie G]

This is a safe and accepting space.

Dude! TMI !!!

 

[GOLIGHTLY]

Dude! TMI !!!

I’M the one catching flak for this!? Lmao

 

[kcjaz]

Bought new hoses and clamps and went to replace them today. The old hoses were definitely leaking. Unfortunately, the issue seems to be that the hard tubes are not round and have been “ovaled”. This may have happened when we swapped the trannies. The other ends of the hoses were really stuck and I had to cut them.

I don’t think I’ll be able to make them round again so it looks like I’m replacing the cooler. I’m hoping I’ll have access without moving other things. Looks like 3 bolts. Not sure if the cooler part comes off by itself or if the backplate (that the ATF hoses connect to) comes off with it.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

Too bad... that's kind of a pricey cooler. If I was you, I'd try to straighten out that pipe. It looks like those 3 bolts will be a major pita to access

 

[kcjaz]

Too bad... that's kind of a pricey cooler. If I was you, I'd try to straighten out that pipe. It looks like those 3 bolts will be a major pita to access

yeah, just looked the up. $350 ouch. I think I'm going to try to straighten the tubes by making wooden clamp. I'll take a block of hardwood and drill a hole that is the tube OD, then cut the block in half. Then I'll clamp the block on the tubes to try to force the tube round again.

Removing the cooler looks like a PITA for sure. I like how the FSM makes it sound easy.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

yeah, just looked the up. $350 ouch. I think I'm going to try to straighten the tubes by making wooden clamp. I'll take a block of hardwood and drill a hole that is the tube OD, then cut the block in half. Then I'll clamp the block on the tubes to try to force the tube round again.

Removing the cooler looks like a PITA for sure. I like how the FSM makes it sound easy.

View attachment 3543929

I was thinking you might take a few drill bits that you don't care about. One that's about the right inner diameter, and a few that are sizes smaller. A few light taps (inner diameter) with progressively larger size bits (using the dull side), might just straighten them...worth a shot...the metal doesn't look too thick (looks like aluminum), so i think you might not even need to tap, but just wiggle in each size up...

 

[kcjaz]

I was thinking you might take a few drill bits that you don't care about. One that's about the right inner diameter, and a few that are sizes smaller. A few light taps (inner diameter) with progressively larger size bits (using the dull side), might just straighten them...worth a shot...the metal doesn't look too thick (looks like aluminum), so i think you might not even need to tap, but just wiggle in each size up...

Great idea. I had thought of a dowel or rod of some kind. Didn’t think about drill bits. What I need is something like this:

 

[kcjaz]

I worked on trying fix the flattened hard tubes with drill bits and some sockets. I took an old socket that’s the right diameter and beveled the end on a grinder. That worked pretty good and I got the lower tube pretty much back to round. The upper tube was worse and is harder to get at as the frame cross member is in the way so tapping a “mandrel” in the tube is difficult. I only had an hours or so this morning and had to leave it for later which will be a few weeks as I have some travel coming up.

If it comes to it, the 3 bolts on the cooler seem to be accessible but I think with some patient work on the tubes, I’ll be able to get them round again.

 

[CanadianRockyCruiser]

Looks like it will probably hold! Let us know how it goes Arm chair quarterbacks are rooting for your leak free future!

 

[GOLIGHTLY]

Looks like it will probably hold! Let us know how it goes Arm chair quarterbacks are rooting for your leak free future!

You know, he really should have just... idk, something about OEM parts.

 

[kcjaz]

update:
I finally got back to this. I used my modified socket and some 1/2” steel rod and was able to get the other tube close to round again. It was a pain. It probably took me 2 hours as access was tight.

Ran it for 30 min and then took it for. 30 min drive on the highway. Doesn’t appear to be leaking now.