Transmission Oil cooler line leak

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FromTjtoLC

FromTjtoLC

10 Year
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Threads
35
Messages
394
Location
Riverside,Ca
When i was changing out my fan clutch i took my lower splash shield off and promptly got an atf shower. I think I have a bad hose from the driver side radiator hose to where it routes into the fender. Does it just connect to a tube farther back inside? I tried searching for that particular hose on diagram after diagram online but its looking more like i have to purchase the whole setup just to get that one hose... There was a thread started on exactly this same subject but like most threads here, was many years old and had no conclusion. Work arounds? Can I use silicon hose as a replacement? Where the heck does it go when it disappears into the fender?
 
It goes a short distance to a short steel tube that transitions through the core support to the air to oil cooler up front. And then returns the same route to the bottom hard line at the lower driver side of the engine on its way back to the tranny.
Might be a good idea to replace all 4 of those trans oil hoses if they are original.
You can use generic power steering hose or hydraulic hose for three of them. The long one that routes hot fluid across the the engine beneath the fan into the bottom tank of the radiator has an nearly 90 degree bend formed into it and, IMO, the correctly formed hose would be best to use in that position.
There are also two hoses that connect directly to the air to oil cooler for a total of six hoses in that cooling system that you can access.
 
Is the special one you are referring to the one that routes to the passenger side of the radiator? @baldilocks
 
This is a bigger job than I thought it was going to be. By now the front end has been blown off my truck so many times I can do it with my eyes closed. Headlight, marker light and grill have to come out in order to reach the bolt for the bracket of those 2 45 degree hard bends. That is the only way I found to get enough space to work in but wait, on the other side of those hard bends are the lines going to the cooler itself as @baldilocks explained. Those get slit. Only way to get em off when they are that old as they have fused themselves to the hard lines. So that's 3. The other line connected to that bracket runs to the front of the motor and is plainly visible. Atf is pouring out the whole time so an impromptu drain and fill is now in the works as well. Also, the hard 90 degree bend coming out of the radiator is pointing straight at the fan shroud. That's gotta move also, and also a giant pain. So 1 line is now 4 and an atf fill. And subsequently a 4 day affair as my time to work on this has ended. Jeez.
 
Yes, the "specially" bent hose is the one that carries fluid from the tranny to the passenger side of the radiator. Just smile and get to work because you know you love it. :flipoff2:
 
I seem to have opened up Pandora's box with this one. The arb bumper and lift certainly do not help me in this situation either. Oh what's it's like to be stock.... But where's the fun in that??
 
Ok so this project is done. Found out that when I put my new radiator in, the 45 degree hard line was pushing the hose right into the shroud. It was putting pressure on the hose so the inside was being chewed up by the nipple on the hard line.

Had to basically rip off the whole driver side of the front end to get the new hose on. This line goes from the bottom of the radiator to a hard 45 degree bend going through the core support on the driver side. The problem is on the engine bay side of the core support. The hard tube runs down and into the void space between the core support and the driver fender well, where I thought it was running in the first place. Taking out your battery and box is the only way to get to it.

Lines run as follows, out bottom of radiator, through core support, into cooler. Out cooler, back through core support, back into engine bay.

Dealing with only the ones I just referenced, every single one of these lines I had to cut off. They were old and fused to the hard lines. Driver headlight, marker lights on side and bottom, grill and at least half the balance came out. Just for the lines. There would be pictures in here too but both my son and myself were covered in atf all through this deal. You'll not be able to miss the routing once your this far.

The only thing I wasn't sure about and found through trial and error is that the hard line coming from the bottom of the radiator is collared, meaning you can loosen, position the line where you want it and tighten back up. All in all a lot of work for one leaky line but it is fixed.
 
Good work!
 
FromTjtoLC said:
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The only thing I wasn't sure about and found through trial and error is that the hard line coming from the bottom of the radiator is collared, meaning you can loosen, position the line where you want it and tighten back up. All in all a lot of work for one leaky line but it is fixed.
Click to expand...

Have seen a bunch of these line fittings incorrectly angled. Before installing a new radiator, we put the shroud on the radiator and adjust the angle of the fittings as needed.
 
Yea, I remember that! Discovered the problem on a trail run. Had to make a quick bypass setup. Eliminated the cooler in the radiator and relied on the big cooler up front to do the job. It was one of those "memorable moments" because there was a 4' rattler trying to join me under the truck!
 
Yeah after I got everything apart I sat there looking at that line snugged up against the shroud and wondered why I thought that looked ok the first time I did it. @inkpot yours was one of the threads I read through when I was trying to figure out where that line went, before I ripped half the front end apart.
 
Glad to hear you got it fixed. What hose brand/type/size and clamps did you end up using; generic, formed, Gates??
 
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