Eh, I'd prefer to do this as best I can, flaring takes only a few more munutes and I'm not interested in crawling around under this thing any more than absolutely necessary. I say flare 'em while you're going to the trouble. Not worried, not at all...

got a crimped section of hard line and this is what I plan to do.

good tip on the tubing cutter

Yeah, tubing cutter is the way to go. The midget style works great for transmission and brake lines.


As for flaring.... well, suit yourself. You're a lot more likely to have problems with the flare cutting the inside of the line over time than you're likely to have a hose slip off.

If you have the tool to make a proper bubble flare, that would be good, but a standard 45 degree flare is going to cut your hose.

What if I just cut the factory crimp with a dremel tool and remove old hose, replace with new hose and hose clamp? No need to cut the hard line?

Subscribed. Fixing my leaky XJ and I'm thinking of just replacing the entire hard and soft line in my xj. Possibly looking into an external cooler if the price is right.

Easier to use a tubing cutter and cut next to the factory crimp on both sides of the crimp, then join with a hose clamp as I illustrated previously. Using a dremel could contaminate the tubing with metal particles as BlueRidgeMark suggested.

There must be an optimal temperature range the trans operates in. Not sure a trans cooler is necessary or even desireable unless you're doing a lot of towing or working the trans equally as hard otherwise.

My 99 leaks from the hose that attaches to the little "Finger" that sticks out of the radiator, low on the drivers side. I know that the fitting is a quick disconnect, but no one told the fitting. It is holding on like it's life depends on it. Any and all of my QD tools and PB Blaster/Kroil have failed to loosen it's grasp on the "Finger" and I don't want to break the radiator trying to remove it.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ken R

Those fittings are designed to be quick connect at the factory, not so much on the disconnect part. The trick is to get those 4 little tabs pressed against the inside of the hose end so they can slip over the lip on the metal finger that sicks out of the bottom of the radiator. All the penetrating oil in the world won't do squat unless you can get them to clear the lip.

Those quick disconnect tools are designed to slip inside the end of the hose and push the tabs away from the metal line, but the location of that fitting makes it difficult to get it in there. I think I ended up cutting mine off since I was putting a new one on there anyway. The new one slipped right on and doesn't leak, so at least that part was easy.

If your issues is the tabs are freed but it still won't move, try twisting it to break it free.