Sure made a mess!

[guilty1]

Cruising along around 65 mph and my transmission cooling line fitting into the radiator broke. I have hardlines into an aluminum radiator. Best I can figure is the vibration over time weakened it. After 5000 miles decided to snap the pipe thread portion off in the radiator. Wondering if this is the standard setup everyone runs or should a guy run a short rubber line off the radiator to allow for flex/vibration? Or rubber lines back to tranny? Hot trans fluid blowing up under the hood sure does a number to the aluminum and ceramic headers! (pic of fitting is after repair)

 

[DirtDonk]

Yuck, that would be messy!
Was it the part that was welded to the radiator? Or one of the thread-in fittings?

A rubber hose section should indeed eliminate any stress. But frankly, over that long of a distance between the transmission and the radiator, there shouldn’t be that much rigidity to begin with.
Are your lines clamped tight close to the front? Maybe under the battery or alternator there where we can’t see it?

 

[guilty1]

Yuck, that would be messy!
Was it the part that was welded to the radiator? Or one of the thread-in fittings?

A rubber hose section should indeed eliminate any stress. But frankly, over that long of a distance between the transmission and the radiator, there shouldn’t be that much rigidity to begin with.
Are your lines clamped tight close to the front? Maybe under the battery or alternator there where we can’t see it?

It was the adapter fitting that broke. The 1/4” thread portion of fitting snapped off. I don’t have any clamps holding the lines, thinking was better to be able to move a little. Maybe was just a fluke, was curious if I was missing something but seems pretty standard.

 

[DirtDonk]

Yeah, could’ve been a defective fitting. Something that I don’t remember ever being an issue back in the day, but I think I’ve heard of a few cracking in different applications in recent years.

 

[BronCowie]

Been there, done that. But my failure was a radiator hose. I was driving down the road ~45mph when I noticed a green liquid squirting out of the gap between my hood and fender. I was able to get to a nearby paring lot and do a WTF inspection. WHAT A MESS!!! My entire engine bay and contents were coated with coolant. Tow truck was soon on the way.