I bought a tranny cooler the other day and it came with 3/8 fittings. Are these the wrong size? If they are can I just use adaptors?

What fittings? You'll just be moving some hose routing around. No need to mess with the fittings going into the radiator.

Crap. Just noticed you have an SE. No stock tranny cooler, eh? You'll want to take the top line out of the radiator and have that go through the trans cooler first, then out of the trans cooler back into the top of the radiator. The fittings you got with it don't fit?

If this is the case, you'll need a tubing bender and de-burring tool. Find a convenient place to cut the line. Attach the new tubing to the transmission end of the cut, and route it to the cooler. Attach the other tube to the outlet of the cooler and back up to the fitting end of the line you cut.

It'* also a good idea to flare the ends a teensy bit to preven hose blowoff.

I just took a wrench to the one supplied fitting to make sure what size it was. It'* 5/8. This is right, right?
I was thinking of cutting into the line like this....

(your looking at it from a drivers side strut tower perspective)
Will I have to run a strait hose from the tranny to the cooler, or could I connect two hoses with a double male connector?
Also, if I take this approach (tapping in at the bottom), am I more likely to have fluid spilling all over compared to just tapping into the line that goes into the top of the radiator?

Your graphic will make this alot easier. I'd put the tranny cooler on the passenger side of the radiator, in the stock location. That way you can tap into the upper line going to the radiator and route your pressure lines around behind the passenger headlight. So you'll be coming out of the trans on the pressure line, turn along the bottom of the rad, turn up, and before the fitting you cut and go through your tranny cooler. Through the cooler, and back to the top of the radiator. Remember, you're only cutting one line here, but you might have to cut a section out to make room for mating the rubber tubing.

Use double clamps on each fitting.

Did that help?

yeah that sounds a little easier. I'll have to go and get a couple of fittings though before I start taking things apart.
thanks.

Hi

By tapping into the upper radiator line, would that allow for "pre-cooling" of the fluid..before the stock cooler gets the atf?

Dunno if these would help, dont know much about tran coolers, ima have to actually go and look at it, but http://www.grandprix.net/upgrades/cooler.html

When I put the cooler on my 1997, I thought I had the wrong fittings too. I was expecting them to be 5/16. Turns out I needed the 3/8 fittings and I didn't realize it. You might take the cooler line loose and check before getting different fittings.

Hi

The fittings are correct. However, the question remans...is the top line the right line for PRE-cooling before the radiator?