Kind of a guess, but could the tranny cooler be clogged up so that old dirty fluid is stuck in there and the fluid in the tranny has been changed and is therefore fresh?

BTW, Napa carries that whole return line for about $35 which IIRC is about half price of the dealer. The plastic "ears" at both ends of the line are a little bit of a pain, but there's a trick to them. Post back if you end up going that route and I'll look at them again...I'm sure it will come back to me. You don't need any special tools to do this.

 

kinda along the lines of what i was thinkin.........thanks i'll let you know

 

yea,theres ears on one end and the other end is pressed on or something..i couldn't get it off,can i just cut the metal line at either end?

 

Yea, the transmission cooler.. small line, vital to the tranny..

can you drain some fluid? smell it to see if its burnt? it all goes to the same place...

 

Shoot, I'm at work or I could take a pic of the line I removed from mine. On the radiator end, it has yellow plastic ears and I remember squeezing them hard, even with pliers and pulling on the line to no avail. I *think* the trick was to squeeze on the ears and then PUSH the fitting further onto the tranny cooler pipe. I know, that seems backwards, but when you push it, it releases the fitting and it literally almost falls off. On the tranny end, mine has a long nut probably 1"+ and white plastic ears. I think I just simply unscrewed that nut and the line came off pretty easily. Don't damage it because it had to be reused on the new line.

You could cut and replace a portion of the line using clamps as others have suggested, but are you sure it isn't the fitting that's leaking?

 

are your talking about the fitting at the tranny? i'm just replacing the 12" rubber section up towards the front of the line,thats where it's leaking,i'll try the pliers on the ears..the other end i may have to cut cause theres no ears...thanks...does it dump fluid when the line comes off?

 

Sorry, I was trying to imply that the pliers were unnecessary once I figured out the trick to push it first versus pull. Yeah, you'll have to cut the other end to just replace the rubber part. You'll want a little bucket to catch the fluid, but it's not a lot.

 

ohhh,gotcha..thanks alot man

 

Those special pliers that fit several different tubing sizes are very cheap and of course are needed for other applications on your Jeep. I think I paid about $5 at Advance Auto for mine and have used them about 5-8 times and it kept me from cutting any lines. Well worth that initial cost.

 

I paid $17 for a tool at Napa that I thought I needed for the tranny end of that line, but it ended up being unnecessary. I was going to sell it on Ebay, but what else might I need it for?

 

Mine has multiple sizes of tubing adaptations and have used it for the fuel line to the regulator and for the tranny lines on both the XJ and my pickup. Have done all of those not just once but multiple times. My friend borrowed it for his Bronco and have used it on my buddies TJ too.

 

Just take em back to the store instead of Ebay.

You really looked to hard into this easy task on the tranny line.

 

whats that supposed to mean? isn't this forum for people to share experience and knowledge of working on jeeps? i have alot of experience to share and to gain and i was very thankful for 96xj's breakdown of the procedure..

 

Well, there was another customer (a mechanic) standing at the counter next to me at Napa when I bought the line. He saw what I was buying and told me I needed the tool, so I trusted him. The tool was shrink wrapped and I opened it and tried it...now I'm stuck with it.

Granted, it was an easy task, but I didn't think I was making too big a deal of it.

 

Did it help with your tranny line connection? I would have ruined my tubing without the tool. I'm very glad I bought mine.