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Auto tranny cooler relocated?

Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:44 pm
by delicat
Has anyone tucked their auto tranny cooler upward to give more ground clearance or save them from damage?

It seems pretty straight forward, just some brackets to shorten... Might be a good idea to cut some vents in the lower metal bumper (below the turn indicators) to allow more airflow?

On the other side the A/C cooler is quite bigger and there's not as much room so unless it's completely relocated (or simply removed if you don't care for A/C) I'm not sure what could be done to it.

These vans have quite a long nose and unless you raise it a little and add bigger tires the front steps and/or cooler are the first thing to eat dirt (after the front license plate!)

Any inputs welcome!
David

Re: Auto tranny cooler relocated?

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 11:20 am
by Mystery Machine
If it stops raining (IF it stops!) tomorrow, I'll try and photograph the location of mine.

It's now pretty tucked up out of the way compared to standard, but I have plans to make it even more 'hidden' from damage soon....

Keep your fingers crossed for some dry weather tomorrow and I'll get some shots for you.

Regards,

Bruce.

Re: Auto tranny cooler relocated?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:17 am
by Mystery Machine
OK - the rain has stopped for all of 5 mins, so I have just popped out and got a few shots of my AC cooler.

This is a 'shaped by nature' mod you must understand!

Oil cooler in standard form:
Image

Oil cooler relocated thanks to a big rock:
Image

Oil cooler in standard form:
Image

Oil cooler relocated thanks to a big rock:
Image

As you can see, it still hangs down a bit, but nowhere near as much as before. They can take quite a hit without any real damage becasue the cage/brackets protect the cooler quite well and the legs of the brackets will bend quite easily when 2ton of motor meets solid rock!

Because the cage/brackets unbolt from the cooler without having to disconnect anything, I'll be swapping this onto the new Mud Monkey but chopping/re-welding the brackets to make it sit even further up and more evenly.

The first two shots aren't really a fair representation because I didn't shoot from the same angle. The 'modified' one does sit up a lot higher than it looks...take a look at the rear bracket legs to get some idea of how far it has moved...

Re: Auto tranny cooler relocated?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 9:48 am
by torchard
Yup the tranny cooler seems pretty simple in that the rear brackets can be shortened, the unit swung up, the brackets then angled accordingly to align again with the stock bolting locations. And maybe trim the side plate a bit. The ac unit is more complicated with hard lines and so forth.

Or you could wait for nature to take it's course. For the pavement dwellers such as myself, evolution is excruciatingly slow, unless I run over a shopping cart. However the stump thumper and rock crawler tribes are on the evolutionary fast track.

Re: Auto tranny cooler relocated?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 12:51 pm
by delicat
Bruce,

Was there an oil cooler in your pictures? All I could see were those monster tyres!!! I think I got serious case of distraction!

Cheers,
David