Fitting size for ATF reservoir on radiator

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bucketman

bucketman

10 Year
Joined
Sep 6, 2014
Threads
22
Messages
211
Location
Medford, OR
Website
www.hunttractor.com
Can anyone tell me what the fitting is on the atf reservoir/cooler on the bottom of the radiator? I have an aftermarket aluminum radiator with aluminum fittings. One of the fittings is damaged and I need to replace it. It will be cut out and re welded in, but I need to order the fitting in for the replacement.
 
Are you still planing to use the 90 degree factory hose barbs to connect the cooler hoses? If you are, don't forget to take the correct hose barb with you when you go to your welder. Remember those hose barbs are not swivels, and they have to be "clocked" to align with the cooler hoses when they are tightened.
 
10mm is factory but many aftermarket radiators come with 3/8" which is very close in size
 
I don't know whether Ron Davis used factory fittings or AN.. but in general AN is standard inch-based sizing, not metric.
 
bucketman said:
It's a Ron Davis Radiator. I will be using the factory barbs again. I won't be having the barbs welded on, just the fitting coming off of the tank.

Am I correct in assuming a 10mm AN fitting?
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No you are not correct, AN fittings use a 37 degree flair angle, the factory radiator fittings are SAE, and use a 45 degree flair angle. If you install AN fittings you'll need to get two new AN 90 degree angle swivel hose barbs.
 
The point i was trying to make before about the factory hose barbs, is you need to make sure they are pointing in the correct direction once you weld your new fitting in place. Since they do not have a swivel end you'll need to tighten the hose barb onto the fitting your welding in place, and then point the end of the barb in the right direction to mate up with your hoses, then weld the fitting. If you don't do this step, you'll have no idea what direction the end of your hose barb will be pointing once you screw it in place.
 
Rifleman- I'm not sure how your radiator is set up, but mine just has the nipples sticking straight out of the back of the radiator so no need to try to weld it on in a certain direction. If you start the factory fitting on the threads and don't tighten it down you can turn the barb any direction you want then tighten it in place. It isn't a swivel end but the tube slips through the threaded part of the fitting and can be rotated any way you like before you tighten it. I have two 80's ('96 and '97), one with the Ron Davis radiator and the other with a factory radiator and both are the same. Both also have the same factory barb fittings for the oil cooler lines.
 
same here

bucketman said:
Rifleman- I'm not sure how your radiator is set up, but mine just has the nipples sticking straight out of the back of the radiator so no need to try to weld it on in a certain direction. If you start the factory fitting on the threads and don't tighten it down you can turn the barb any direction you want then tighten it in place. It isn't a swivel end but the tube slips through the threaded part of the fitting and can be rotated any way you like before you tighten it. I have two 80's ('96 and '97), one with the Ron Davis radiator and the other with a factory radiator and both are the same. Both also have the same factory barb fittings for the oil cooler lines.
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bucketman said:
NLXTACY- Do you know what the factory fitting is? It looks like metric JIC, but I'm not sure.
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oh, the fitting size that Ron Davis uses to match the OEM threaded nipples is: M14 x 1.0

SOR has these if you need them FWIW
image-jpg.906434
 
Thanks for the info NLXTACY. After driving all over town for the last couple hours I figured out what you just told me :) and a little more. The thread pitch is indeed M14 x 1.0 which I already kind of figured, but wanted to be 100%. The adapter type is SAE Flare Tube. It is not AN and not JIC. Try finding that in a medium sized city in the US. I wish the US had adopted the metric system back in the 80's when it was being considered, but noooo we had to be different!! I'll try AeroQuip for a fitting. Thanks!
 
Thank you for the input everyone. It helped point me in the right direction to find a definitive answer as to what the fitting is.

Even though I figured out exactly what the fitting is it still didn't help me. That fitting actually doesn't exist in the states and may not exist anywhere in the world as far as I can tell, so I had my machinist brother-in-law build one for me. I should have the radiator back from the welder today and installed tonight.

Because of the way that Ron Davis builds the radiator and the transmission cooler I opted to not cut the damaged fitting off, but instead made a fitting that slipped over the damaged one. It sticks out about .75" farther than it did before, but I didn't risk damaging the oil cooler that way. It is a one piece oil cooler so cutting the fitting off could have compromised the cooler.

If anyone ever needs this fitting for any reason let me know. My brother-in-law saved the program in his cnc lathe so he can build more any time out of any material.
 
Bucketman, having a family member with access to a machine shop is a wonderful thing. That's one of the reasons i set up a full machine shop at home, to handle little problems like making this "special", one of a kind fitting. So what was different about this fitting, was it the flair angle, or the thread pitch, or what?
 
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