Greetings, All:

I found a leak in my transmission oil cooler line, and figured that should be an easy replacement. However, I am having trouble getting at the fitting - its hard to see, let alone get a wrench on it. The truck is a 97 F150 5.4 2WD, long bed supercab, with the E4OD transmission. The line exits near the front of the transmission and snakes around eventually to the top fitting on the driver side of the radiator. The problem is the fitting at the trans. Do I need to take off the heat shield? If so, how can I get at the fastener that's above the passenger side catalytic converter? From what I can see, it looks like there are four fasteners total, and one of them cannot be accessed by normal humans.

 

I see now I was approaching this wrong. The fasteners I was trying to get at are holding the shield itself to the brackets/straps that are attached to the frame. The fasteners holding the straps to the frame are more accessible, especially once I removed the wheel well splash guards. Or would you call those inner fenders? Anyway, I can see the bolts and get a wrench on them, and the rust has converted them from 13mm to a nice tight fit for a 1/2 inch. Now all I need is more time to work on it.

 

Is the cooler line leaking on the "flex or rubber" hose area? gonna guess yes.
anyway it would be a good idea to try to flush the transmission cooler that is built into the radiator and (if you have one) the auxiliary trans cooler. It will be a lot easier if you remove the radiator to do this. the reason the trans cooler/s can get clogged and restrict flow to the transmission and increase line pressure and of course cooling of the trans oil.

You may or may not be able to flush it out with success I recent had similar issue and due to time and not wanting to repeat the cooler line again I did install a new radiator and cooler. OH yes... that trans cooler line installs MUCH easier with the radiator out

 

The cooler lines are leaking in the hard-piped area, due to corrosion. In fact, the first line I took out (going from the rear of the trans to the passenger side of the auxiliary cooler) actually snapped as I was removing it. That first line was leaking very obviously, forming a nice 4-foot puddle in the driveway. At least the process of removing it was fairly straightforward, but I believe all the messing around damaged the other line. Once I thought I was done and fired up the truck, I had a slow leak in a new spot along the second line.

The removal process for the second line is what has been giving me hell. Not only is it 38 degrees F and raining while I'm working on a gravel driveway, but the fitting at the front of the trans appears completely inaccessible without some sort of surgery to add an extra elbow to my arm. I did finally get it out though, by the following steps:
1) remove inner fender, passenger side
2) remove fasteners retaining the brackets that mount the heat shield
3) now that the heat shield could move around a little, (not enough to get at the fitting of course), I was able to remove the heat shield from its brackets
4) without the brackets, I could slide the heat shield down enough to get at the fitting

Now if I could only buy a replacement part. It does not appear to be readily available, but I am still working on that.

 

It turns out that the description for the part made by Dorman Products, part #624-226 was incorrect. Since they supply almost everyone who sells a replacement transmission cooler line, everybody else's description was wrong, too. The application notes specifically designate this as being for vehicles w/o auxiliary cooling, and the detailed specification lists the overall length as 62 inches. I bought the part anyway, planning to start there and fill in the missing section with hose, and it was close to an exact match to the part I just removed (except for the fitting at the transmission end). There was also an extra bend on the transmission end. I cut off the extra bend, and used the fitting from the old line. There was just barely enough tube to flare it, but it worked out OK.

The overall length is 92 inches as close as I can measure. And, since it goes into the system on the supply side (from the front port of the E4OD transmission to the top port of the main radiator on the driver's side) it is more or less the same part regardless of the auxiliary cooling setup. But, the Dorman customer service people were correct, they do not sell the part I needed. Luckily, they do sell one that is close enough to work with. I sent their Customer Service people a note to let them know, but I will be surprised if they actually update their website. Time to get the truck buttoned up and back on the road!