Both sets of lines I've had are bent beyond recognition, and when bending them to fit they will leak regardless. You guys have an idea what I should do? I heard about using hoses as a replacement, or maybe using hoses in between the lines after cutting off the part where it gets fuzzy, sounds like a good idea to me, whay do you guys think about this?

 

Bad idea to be threatening your car with being beaten by a rubber hose !!!

But seriously , You should abandon any notions of doing it the lazy quick way rather than the right way . Here in the US , every autoparts store sells pre made straight lengths of the metal tubing needed . And it's cheap . So when one of these transmission fluid cooler lines gets bunged beyond all repair I just buy up a few lengths of it , and yea maybe ruin one or two in the process of getting them bent well enough to fit in , and then it's done in metal just as when it left the General's factory .

Anything less is just begging for a leak some time or other ......

 

Problem is that the original lines can't seem to be bent right any more, hoses would be a sure fix despite not being the factory standard way. Don't know if straight pipes can be bought here, or how much they'd cost, not sure if the connectors will be the same and etc. if they are even sold here, but I'll try calling a parts store. Thanks for the suggestion, man!

 

What I have is a barbed fitting threaded into both inserts at the trans and cooler. Then I have fuel injector hose connecting them with high pressure clamps. Works great and is a tad bit more exspencive but will last much better then metal lines but downfall is it doesn't dissipate heat. I have a external cooler though.

 

Heya, FastEddi! So what you're saying is that it won't work unless I get an external cooler? Or will it work regardless?

 

I agree with FE. If you do rubber lines instead of hard line dont use anything but fuel injection clamps. The worm gear clamps suck for trans line. Mine doesnt have barb fittings, but where I have rubber line going from the hard line to my external cooler, the end of the hard line is flared, with 3 fuel injection clamps, and it doesnt leak.

Trans cooler line or fuel injection hose are really your only two options for rubber hose here. Eventually I will bend up some hardline for mine, but it hasnt leaked a drop in the 3 years its been that way.

If you really want to do it the "right" way, bend some hard line. I dont see a right way or a wrong way to go about it, being they supply rubber trans cooler line with trans cooler kits. The stock trans cooler on my chevy G20 conversion van, has rubber lines from factory, so AFAIC there is nothing wrong with using rubber line, aside from the type of line and clamps you use.

 

All you need to do is to go to the parts store and ask for whatever diameter brake tubing. Cut the factory fitting nuts off of the ends of the bad lines and bend the brake tubing how it needs to go before sliding the tube nuts on and flaring the end of the line similar to the old ones. Just keep in mind that you need to do one at a time so you don't get them mixed up.

Or you can order metal fuel line to the same effect from a racing parts supplier or something...

And worm clamps are fine. I don't know the pressure of the trans cooler system, but I can't imagine it being much more than the fuel injection system. It's the boost pressure inside the trans itself that gets higher. Anyways, I don't know how many years they were there, but the fuel hose between the tank line and the body line on my 87 was standard fuel injection line with worm clamps. Both sides, pressure and return, had regular hose clamps. Never a leak that I'm aware of (those were in the engine compartment ) in 7+ years and 54,000 miles (over all sorts of crappy roads).

 

Its not like the worm gear clamps suck, its just that everyone will have their own definition of "tight". With worm gear clamps, too tight is broke, especially if the clamps are cutting into the hose. Ive found if you tighten them just to the point that the rubber bulges out of the holes, thats about as tight as I go. But even then, i prefer the fuel injection clamps anyway.

To each their own

 

There is ALLOT more psi in your cooling system then your tranny lines.

Its a myth that your gonna blow a line off.....


hose barbs and hose clamps are double fine. As after about a month, the hose will not come off even if you want it to, you have to cut it off as the barbs will be formed to it and will not let it come off.


now a coolant hose, slips onto a smooth pipe, with maybe a tiny bump, holds back tons more pressure with a reg hose clamp, and they will slip on and off as you like with ease.

guess which one you should worry about more? coolant lines, but we all know they don't blow off so 2+2= stop spreading a BS myth

 

I just re-read the thread and nobody said anything about blowing a line off. Only mention of pressure was Maverick stating the boost pressures are higher IN the trans, not the lines.