My 77 250 has a 400 in it. when i first bought it 2years ago, it had a small oil leak, and i believed it to be the gaskets. now that i have the gaskets and everything to do it, i had it running the other day, and found out that the transmission cooler lines run too close to the oil pan and the inside line has actually wore a pin hole in the oil pan. i already have the plans of fixing the hole, but what is your suggestion to do with the cooler lines. thanks

 

you might can go to your local auto parts store and buy some fuel line holders, the kind that bolt on, and run your tranny lines through that. You can use your pan bolts to hold them in place, just remember not to tighten them too tight.

 

I would take a length of heater hose and cut a long slit down the length of it, so that it makes the shape of a "U". Then put it around the section of the lines that rub the pan, and zip-tie each end of the hose to hold it in place.

 

Yea, that will work as well.

 

ok those are really great suggestions, but is there any remedy? do i just make a new line and make it go out further? or is it just not worth it?

 

It has been done in the past and works rather well, you can use a piece of 5/16" fuel line to repair the tube.

 

Honestly I can't say I've ever seen this problem happen. But nonetheless, it's happening for you. You have two options: keep the two metals from touching, or let them touch but put a barrier in between to reduce abrasion. Do whatever is easiest for you. My advice - bending new transmission cooler lines has got to be one of the worst ways to spend a Saturday ever.

If you do the suggested fix of using a length of hose for that section of the line, you must barb each end of the line. Otherwise the hose will slip off no matter how tight you clamp it. Transmission oil cooler hose uses thicker webbing and withstands the temperature of the transmission fluid better than fuel hose would, in my opinion. But if you don't have any damage to your transmission lines, it's going to be easier for you to just put something in between the two metals to keep them from rubbing. I still find it hard to believe that this happened, but I guess there is a first time for everything. Many stock transmission lines have a small S-clamp that holds the two lines together for stability and this is usually along the oil pan. This can scratch at the pan, but it'd really take some work for that to actually puncture the pan.