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At the time of purchase, Auto Assets replaced the rubber hose on two sections of one of the transmission fluid lines on the Red Witch.
I am now replacing all the rest, using Greg Brown's bulk hose and clamp kit.
There is some factory looking aluminum covered cloth sleeving over one line, and a mishmash of sleeving over the other line. These are the 90 degree flex sections above the catalytic converter (if the Red Witch had one. )
So...what would be a good fire sleeve and/or abrasion sleeve for the rubber sections of the transmission lines? Should I only cover those above the catalytic converter area? Or, should I cover at all three areas? At the transmission, above the catalytic converter area, and up front at the radiator and remote cooler?
I don't know squat about fire sleeve, so I am open to suggestions. Last time I dealt with it was on GE LM2500 and Allison 501K-17 gas turbine engines. 16 years ago.
Soooo...I am open to any and all suggestions.
Sleeving in question.
Corrugated sleeving, and brass crimp added at time of rubber hose replacment. Woven sleeving looks to be factory.
Routing of hoses above catalytic converter area.
Rubber hose at the fill point connection on the passenger's side of the transmission.
Where the hose routes along the torque converter housing on the passenger's side.
Factory hose at top. Replaced hose at bottom, with brass crimp and some kind of braided sleeving.
Factory crimp is starting to leak. This is why I am replacing everything.
Connection on the driver's side of the transmission, showing new hose, brass crimp, and braided sleeving.
Routing of hose/sleeving along the torque converter housing, with the shift cable, on the driver's side.
Short rubber hose at the front that goes to the lower cooler fitting in the radiator.
Long rubber hose at the front that goes to the remote transmission cooler behind the grille.
I am completely removing both lines. Yes, a bit of trouble. But, I will be able to work with removing the factory crimps from the relative comfort of the work bench. That, and there is some surface rust on the lines where they route along the torque tube. I want to deal with that.
I will loosely reassemble both lines in place under the car, then crimp the clamps down after everything is correctly clocked.
At the front, I will be incorporating a remote spin on oil filter for the transmission. I have ordered extra hose and clamps to account for that.
I don't think I am going to replace the two new hose sections that Auto Assets installed. The crimps look good and don't seem to be leaking.
Seth, a word to the wise: Don't buy the sleeve material from GE. Their stuff for the aero-derivative or even the frame gas turbines is nice but way too $pendy.
Normal Firesleeve, the stuff many people buy for electrical harness protection, is good for hoses too. There are aftermarket metal-wrap sleeve materials that will do the same job in that location but aren't really necessary - the lines are protected from direct radiant heat by the factory heat shields. Remember that these are insulation only, and so merely slow the propagation of heat. The fluid pumping through the hose inside just needs to carry any transferred heat away so the hose can be kept relatively cool.
Related: As I was contemplating a front engine harness build material Firesleeve purchase, I brain-farted a thought that the same sleeve needs to go over the soon-to-be-rebuilt power steering hoses in the engine bay.
OK, all this brings up a really good question: what exactly am I looking for?
Should I be looking for a sleeve that will insulate the hoses from heat?
Should I be looking for a sleeve that will protect the hoses from abrasion?
Should I be looking for a sleeve that will contain and redirect a leak from the hose?
All of the above?
None of the above?
All this would apply to:
-transmission hoses at transmission
-transmission hoses above catalytic converter area
-transmission hoses at front of car near radiator and remote cooler
-power steering pressure and return hoses
That makes sense. Only reason I said 'abrasion' is because the hoses at the front had some kind of foam sleeve on them. I had thought this was for abrasion resistance.
I ended up ordering enough DEI Firesleeve to cover all the rubber hose sections, as well as those I add for the remote transmission filter. I also ordered some stainless steel ties to help secure the fire sleeve.
I spent most of yesterday working on the transmission cooling lines.
Piece by piece, I cut open the crimped ferrules to separate the rubber hoses from the metal lines.
I bagged fittings to go work for a bath in the parts washer.
I measured the length of the removed rubber pieces for reference for cutting new ones.
I cleaned crud from the lines with mineral spirits and a brush.
I wire wheeled the corrosion from the lines.
Then it went wrong...
Crud, corrosion on metal line.
Original heat sleeve on 90 degree bent rubber hose.
Surprised to find this union under the heat sleeve. Should have know, as I saw it in PET.
Banjo fluid fitting for the passenger's side of the transmission. Rubber hose sealing surfaces are in excellent condition.
Removal of 90 degree hose.
Hose sealing surfaces on line and union are in excellent condition.
Banjo fluid fitting for driver's side of the transmission, with new hose and crimp ferrule.
New 90 degree hose and crimp ferrule, with corrosion on the line.
Mishmash of heat sleeve over rubber hose.
New hose with corroding new crimp ferrule at yet another union that I did not know was there. I should pay more attention to PET...
Driver's side banjo fluid fitting removed.
Other end of new rubber hose at transmission. Not too happy about the end of that line. OEM barb is gone. Looks like a not terribly effective attempt at making a barb with a double flaring tool.
Removal of new 90 degree rubber hose and crimp ferrules at union.
Removal of rubber hose and fitting at end of line going into the lower fitting of the radiator cooler.
Radiator cooler hose fittings. Upper J fitting at left, lower straight fitting at right.
Disassembled the union, as it looked like it had been weeping. Will thoroughly clean, then seal with Loctite 574.
Cut damaged end off the metal line, used my double flaring kit to make a bubble as a barb for the line.
Curiosity got the better of me. I took apart the other union.
Sealing surface is fine, but there is corrosion on the threads.
Some corrosion on the internal threads.
Wire wheeled the body of the union, used my rotary tool with various wire brushes to clean up the internal and external threads. I will seal it as well with Loctite 574.
Note, I cut off the new hoses and crimp ferrules installed by Auto Assets last year. They were not leaking, and appeared to be good. However, I am more comfortable with all the rubber hoses in the transmission lines being the same with the same clamps for consistency. No logic, just me.
However, I am glad I did, as I found and repaired that sketchy barb.
As I wire wheeled the corrosion from the lines, they got worse and worse. One of the lines has a hole rusted through, and considerable pitting. This would be the metal line along the torque tube from the passenger's side of the transmission. The metal line along the torque tube from the driver's side of the transmission does not have a hole rusted through, but there is considerable pitting.
The two metal lines that continue up to the front have surface corrosion, but no pitting.
For a moment, I considered doctoring the pitted lines with JB Weld. And immediately thought against it. I am not a fan of half-*ssing, especially on a component that will be a bear to get back to later.
Shortly, I am contacting Tom at 928 Intl. for a decent condition set of used lines.
I will then start over with the cutting off of ferrules and cleaning of lines.
Corrosion, pitting at the right.
Corrosion and pitting.
Hole in the middle.
Pitting.
Pitting.
Pitting.
Deep pitting.
And the saga continues. I keep plugging on, as I will finish the Red Witch!
Ask if Tom can cut the rubber from the fittings and tubes sections, and trash the rubber. You already have the rubber and the needed lengths/clocking, so you just want the metal parts. The metal can be cleaned for shipment, while oil-soaked rubber parts not so much.
Were it me, with your ready access to industrial-strength SS instrument tubing, benders and with the double-flaring tool, my corroded bits would be relatively corrosion-proof new metal in a heartbeat. Just sayin'... 10mm is ever so slightly smaller than a standard 3/8" tubing, close enough that you can easily use the 10mm connecting nuts over it. 8mm is within a few thousandths of 5/16" tubing, although I don't remember any 8mm sections in those runs.
While I don't regularly recommend deviating from the factory's original plumbing plan, consider that some of those rubber connections are there to make initial car assembly easier, since they wanted to lift the assembled driveline up to the tub as one assembly. You can easily justify some economizing on rubber sections that do nothing for you now, like the ones over the catalyst. Plus rubber sections that aren't there will never leak, degrade, cause a fire, etc. IMO, the tubing should have been attached to the tub as the fuel, AC and brake lines are. Too late for that now.
06-16-2017, 01:12 PM
Fire/abrasion sleeve for transmission lines...
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