Quoted: UPDATE #2 Under the heading of "no good deed goes unpunished..." We leave Friday afternoon to take our new camper out on its maiden voyage. 3 miles to the interstate, we pull under the overpass getting ready to hit the access road. All of a sudden, the clutch is slipping like crazy, BAD things are afoot. I pulled over immidiately and my suspicion was confirmed - busted hose. We called the shop that installed it (they're only a few miles away) andhe sent someone over. While waiting, I cut off the part off the hose that had busted off the fitting. It seems that when he expanded the end of the pipe, he made the flange too big and when slipping on the radiator hose, it cut into the inside of the hose and eventually ruptured. The shop employee came out after about 10 minutes, cut off the flange and used two hose clamps to keep it in place. It held up fine for our trip since then. Keeping my fingers crossed that that's the last of out problems...

If your tranny lost fluid when the hose busted, it is toast.

Unless there is a hose barb fitting on the end of the pipe, or at least some type of inverted flare, the rubber hose WILL slip off the pipe. The reason it cut the hose the first time is because they probably only did a single flare on the end of the pipe instead of a double flare. The single flare always leaves a sharp edge.

Most aftermarket tranny coolers will provide universal fittings that will go on the end of the factory cooler line and in the radiator tank, allowing you to safely connect a rubber hose. One of the fittings will be the same female fitting as in the radiator tank, the other end will be a hose barb. You just tighten that on to the end of the factory cooler lines. The other fitting will screw into the radiator tank, and have a hose barb sticking out to connect the hose.

Plumbing should go like this:

Radiator IN: HOT line from trans into radiator (Undisturbed)

Radiator OUT:  Install special hose barb fitting in radiator, run rubber hose to aux trans cooler IN

AUX cooler IN: connect rubber hose from Rad OUT.

AUX cooler OUT: Connect to trans return line using special fitting with hose barb.


FWIW, trannys run line pressures between 90-300psi. Any opportunity to leak or slip apart and they will.

The fittings will look 'sorta like this:
This one goes in the radiator:


This one goes on the trans cooler return line:


A double flare leaves a soft rounded edge:


A single flare does not:

Quoted: Quoted: If your tranny lost fluid when the hose busted, it is toast. From 200 yards worth of driving?   Well, I don't doubt that you can cause some damage and I will be keeping a close eye on it, but it did run fine all weekend and towed the camper just fine. How can I tell if there's any damage other than it not shifting properly?

For that little bit you didn't hurt anything.

Let me guess. B&M transmission shops?

Quoted: Quoted: Let me guess. B&M transmission shops? Nah - Eagle. Are they ALL bad? Dang...

Ever had a guy show you "your" disassembled transmission and go on and on about how totally "burned up" it was, and how a "total replacement" is required along with a drive shaft "lengthening and balancing" plus an oil cooler "replacement and rear diff repair"? Then after 10 minutes of drivel  point out that he's showing you Oldsmobile CAR tranny parts when you brought in a Chevy 1 ton?

The 1-ton that is still sitting in the lot with the tranny in place?

I went overboard on Tranny cooling.  I don't thing any stock vehicle has adequate cooling from the factory, so I tried real hard to make up for it.  I already had a OEM cooler, but I wanted a bigger one, so I installed the biggest model B&M made, and didn't have to make any changes to the fluid plumbing, but I did have to trim a bracket to make it fit.  The new cooler was twice and tall and twice as thick 11" x 11" x 1.5". B&M #70274

Then I added a deep Aluminum Pan with a drain plug and build-in cooling fins. B&M #70295

A last I added a Remote Transmission Filter, in addition to the stock one.  B&M 80277

So far I've got 128,000 on the tranny and not a moments trouble out of it.

Quoted: I went overboard on Tranny cooling.  I don't thing any stock vehicle has adequate cooling from the factory, so I tried real hard to make up for it.  I already had a OEM cooler, but I wanted a bigger one, so I installed the biggest model B&M made, and didn't have to make any changes to the fluid plumbing, but I did have to trim a bracket to make it fit.  The new cooler was twice and tall and twice as thick 11" x 11" x 1.5".

That looks like a little bit of money, well-spent.

Throw in an ATF temperature gauge, and you're pretty much set. IIRC, Mag Hytec makes deep sump pans with built-in fittings for a temperature sensor; not sure if B&M does.

BTW, some folks prefer to install the aftermarket cooler in parallel with the existing in-tank one - the idea being to avoid introducing any new restriction in the fluid flow, and to prevent over-cooling in very cold weather.