For anyone thats changed the transmission lines

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

on a 2nd gen, any pointers?


I recently picked up a 1997 explorer with lower miles and better body condition then my 98 but it needs some work and one of the things i noticed was the transmission lines by the starter are very rusty and fluid is starting to bleed through them.

I didn't wanna do a hack job and put in rubber hoses etc so i ordered new metal lines.

but when i looked up on the transmission where they screw in above the exhaust it looks pretty tight, like how am i even going to get a wrench in there tight and how am i even gonna screw the new ones back in.

any pointers besides removing the exhaust? cause i dont' wanna deal with that nightmare.

 

[CDW6212R]

The right cat pipe will likely have to come out. I've got a new set of the 302 trans lines myself, but mine will go in with an engine/trans swap.

Are you going to sell the 98 truck whole?

 

[96eb96]

I did it for a V6, I have all nice new lines and installed a big cooler. I had leaks near the trans fittings so rubber was out of the question.

I was able to access some thru the wheel well with a crowsfoot and an extension, hammered on a smaller size, some thru the bottom. YMMV on a V8. Also, Dorman lines could have incorrect fittings,double check before installing. The problem may be solved. If you cut the line near the fitting you can use a regular socket.

Dropping the cat would have made it very easy, I had it out, should have done it back when.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

ah sucky, i'm really hoping that i don't have to drop the exhaust because stuff is gonna break and i'm not gonna be happy with that. but i'll give it a try without doing so and see what happens.

i'm gonna keep my 98 and run it into the ground, it still runs great, just the body is going on it, i may put a snow plow on it eventually

 

[boominXplorer]

It's been awhile since I've done them but I'm pretty sure I did them by lifting the motor up on the passenger side and not removing the exhaust. The hard part is getting the line to lay in place without bending the heck out of it.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Use a flare wrench on the fittings to prevent rounding of the corners.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

thanks for the suggestions guys, I forgot to say it was an AWD 5.0 in the original post. yeah i'm gonna have to get creative to try to and do them without pulling the exhaust so we'll see how that goes next week.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

it took some patience and a lot of cuss words and some fanaggling but I was able to change the 2 lines from the transmission forward without dropping any of the exhaust which I'm pretty thankful for because I know if i would have touched the exhaust I would have had a much bigger job with broken studs etc.

I should have gotten the 3rd line that runs from the radiator to the cooler but i made it work for now and i'll probably change it eventually.


Now I just have to wait for my other parts, It needs upper balljoints and alignment, brake rotors and pads all the way around (crossing my fingers on the calipers) and I need to rig up some exhaust for it as the muffler was rotted out and one of the cats has a small hole in it. I've already hacked off the muffler and the back section of pipe after the resonator is in decent shape and I have a piece of y-pipe so i'm just gonna rig up some pipe inbetween the 2nd cats to the back pipe and call it good.

It also has a coolant leak somewhere and I've tightened some clamps but I'll have to run it around a bit after i get the other things squared away before i can properly see where its coming from. I figure it might be the t-stat housing gasket or the timing cover gasket.

I hope its not the timing cover gasket, but if it is I've done one on my 98 and its not real terrible, but that'll probably wait until its warmer out.