Can anyone tell me the easiest way to get the cooler lines off the transmission without taking the transmission out? I tried a regular 1/2" open end wrench but there is no room to move in that tight space. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

The easiest way would be with a set of bolt cutters. snip snip. But that's assuming you're not wanting to reuse the hard lines. If you are wanting to salvage the metal lines, then just keep at it with that open ended 1/2" wrench. It'll work, believe me. I have done it too many times before.

 

been a while since I had my tranny out but can't you remove the rear crossmember and lower the tranny a bit to make access easier?

simon

 

That is exactly how I did mine. Put a floor jack under the crossmember, unbolted it from the frame, and gently lowered the trans until I could reach the cooling lines.

You won't get it low enough to make accessing them easy, just possible. Getting the darn things back in will take a few beers and profanity. Last time around (before the T56 swap) I had braided-stainless steel covered Teflon lines fabricated locally and threw the steel tubes in the trash. Made installation/removal much easier and plumbing to my external trans cooler a breeze.

 

There is no easy way to do this. It is a friggin bitch, period. Lower the transmission some, and you'll get a little more room. I went through hell with this because the fittings were rounded off on mine, and I had to use vise grips. I believe the lines are actually 13mm rather than 1/2", but maybe 1/2" and 13mm are equivalent sizes, hmm.

 

Use a 1/2" flare nut wrench & you won't round off the nut. Yes, they are a bitch, even with the trans lowered. I cut two 15" pieces of 5/16" tubing & bent them to match the old lines. I then used a connector to connnect to the shortened old tubing. Now when I need to remove them I just undo the connector at the side of the engine, much easier.

 

Well shoot, I never thought of lowering the back of the tranny to get to them... but I did kick a hole in the wall of the garage out of frustration.
Yup, 1/2 and 13mm are about equivalent.
I still say cut them out and run a soft line of some sort to a 5/16 fitting.

 

I'm the sort of guy that likes to struggle and get the original connectors undone rather then adding other connectors , flex pipe and jubille clips etc. ie other places for leaks to occur

However I have had to do it. I remember having to fix a high pressure 8mm fuel pipe on my old Audi. The best connectors are plumbers microbore compression fittings. In the UK some house heating radiators use 8mm pipe. Maybe you have similar system in the US. I wouldnt use the solder type for obvious reasons.

The 700r4 box is metric so I'd guess it is 13mm. Loose fitting spanners and tight bolts are a bad combination.

Spraying fittings with release oil and a good spanner should shift it.

Simon

 

Or, you could take out the passenger seat and use a 4" hole saw on the side of the transmission hump. That works very well. Hahaha, sorry I couldn't resist. Another idea. I switched my tranny to a th400/Gear Vendors combo. There is more clearance to the cooling lines on the th400. Maybe you should do that.