Upgraded transmission lines fitting failure

[drtrox]

About 10K miles ago I finally upgraded my auto trans cooling lines to rid myself of the wonder of when those plastic clips would let go (again). Well, today while heading home from Dover, Ohio the replacement fitting that screws into the trans (for the hot line) failed just at the base of the threads leaving just a short piece of brass fitting in the trans housing and 6 quarts of oil on Rt 80. I managed to get off at east bound exit 223 and went to the Speedway parking area. I removed the rear fitting for a sample and walked to Fyda Freightliner. The guy in parts was nice as could be and went searching for a fitting. Would you believe he came up with a match. I bought 2 fittings and an AC o-ring kit as the original fitting had an o-ring where the flare end of the tubing seats. Total cost $3. 59! What I couldn't obtain and did not have with me was an easy-out. I hammered a straight blade screw driver into the fitting stub, grabbed the screw driver handle with a pliers and low and behold, the broken piece backed out. Total down time (with the 2 mile walk) 2 hours and 20 minutes.



I'm going on a search to find that fitting in stainless steel. Any help locating same would be appreciated.

 

[Joe G.]

Don,



You might check into replaceing the lines with hydraulic hose. That's what I'm going to do if my fittings fail. So far so good for over 100K miles. I used compression fittings instead of flare fittings. My '95 has 171K on it now. The original plastic fittings failed shortly after the warranty expired (naturally!). These were the first type that had a wire clip. The next ones I got were plastic also and supposed to fix the failure problem with the originals. They didn't last as long as the first type. Then I read in the TDR about using compression fittings. That's what I did. Since then I've read about vibration causing these to fail. So far it hasn't happened to me.