Hey y'all.

I am new here and desperately need some help.

I am just beginning to pull a utility trailer, I live in Atlanta (hot during the summer), and I drive 35 miles one way in stop and go driving each day to work and back. Therefore, I am....no, I mean therefore, I decided to install a transmission cooler on my 2001 Dodge Ram. I just had to rebuild the entire transmission at 59,000 miles (hoo-stinking-ray for me) so it was an opportune time to put a cooler on....no sense putting one on a transmission with 100K miles.

I bought the kit and a Haynes manual (just so that I would have one). I am installing the cooler in line which is to say that I am taking the output from the radiator (post cooling) that would normally be sent back to the transmission and sending it through the cooler first. My problem is that I need to know which of the two lines coming into/out of the radiator is the correct line to tap.

My Haynes manual doesn't address it and I cannot find anything about it on the net. The only reference in Haynes is to an "Automatic Transmission Cooler Connection" that sits just above the lower radiator hose on the bottom right side of the transmission. My Dad and I differ on what that means. He says that this connecter is there to accept the hot oil from the transmission for introduction into the radiator's built in cooler. I took it to be that this connecter is where the cooled oil exits the radiator on the way back to the transmission (and therefore where you would install an in-line cooler).

Surely someone can tell me which line returns the cooled oil back to the tranny. I am sure someone here has done this before or is a mechanic.

Thanks,
New

 

Most coolers have the return line on the bottom, so the bottom line would be the return line.

 

Can anyone tell me which way the ATF flows? Thanks Bill

 

its been my experience and talking to others that the best thing to do when installing a transmission cooler is to bypass the radiator completely. because the radiator holds its on temp from the engine coolant, so it cools only as much as it cools the antifreeze, and the trans cooler is still doing most of the work. by bypassing the radiator(heat source) the cooler has a better chance to cool.

as for which line...
i believe it pumps fluid to the top of the radiator and returns through the bottom, because it would take alot to pump fluid up through its part of the radiator.

 

DO NOT BY_PASS THE RADIATOR. The aux cooler is not designed to to be the only cooler-that is why it is called an auxillary cooler. The lower connection should go to the aux cooler. It should be very straightforward to install. Make sure you use 7176 to top off fluid when you are done. Fords Mercon synthetic and GM's Dex fluid do not have the same properties as 7176.