Transmission Time..

[Brock]

(02-08-2017 )Matt Wrote:  What's the price difference between a Lipe and an eaton clutch? Who sells the Lipe in Canada? With the air cooler..Where's the best place to mount it? I had a freightliner classic with an air cooler mounted between the frame rails directly below the back sleeper wall and pulling 80,000 in southwestern us and in Mountain areas had no problem with heat. My concern is that now I have a T660 with full fairings, will I get enough airflow under the cab to keep that cooler working.

I bought mine at Dave's diesel in Acheson ab. If I remember correctly I think it was actually cheaper then a Eaton.

[Unilevers]

(02-08-2017 )Roysbigtoys Wrote:  Not hijack this thread....... but my truck also experienced coolant in the trany oil from the stupid cooler. I was noticing a sporadic shudder/vibration under acceleration. While checking my truck out I noticed a milky substance coming from the top of transmission.......un-screwed the fill plug and it came shooting out. The trany was warm, so I drained it and flushed. ( I checked with Roadranger.....they recommend flushing with Dexron atf.) I probably put at least 2-3 thousand miles on the truck before i figured out my problem. My vibration did go away.
Anyone have any idea what kind of damage might have been done to my trany? Do I drive it till it fails?
The truck pulls a lowboy and end dump with for my excavating company. The truck rarely goes more than 45 minutes in one direction.....should I put an air cooler back it or run without a cooler?

honestly the truth is hard to accept.

if coolant got into your tranny its done. i dont care if you drove it for 20 miles its still done. by the time you notice the damage is already there. it will fail in the very near future and there is not much that can be done about this. i had this argument with a local guy here and 2 weeks later he was getting a tranny aswell. the coolant takes the oil film off the gears and you get metal on metal and it soaks into the rear box synchro and destroys it.

[Hammerhead]

(02-08-2017 )Roysbigtoys Wrote:  Not hijack this thread....... but my truck also experienced coolant in the trany oil from the stupid cooler. I was noticing a sporadic shudder/vibration under acceleration. While checking my truck out I noticed a milky substance coming from the top of transmission.......un-screwed the fill plug and it came shooting out. The trany was warm, so I drained it and flushed. ( I checked with Roadranger.....they recommend flushing with Dexron atf.) I probably put at least 2-3 thousand miles on the truck before i figured out my problem. My vibration did go away.
Anyone have any idea what kind of damage might have been done to my trany? Do I drive it till it fails?
The truck pulls a lowboy and end dump with for my excavating company. The truck rarely goes more than 45 minutes in one direction.....should I put an air cooler back it or run without a cooler?

(02-08-2017 )Unilevers Wrote:  honestly the truth is hard to accept.

if coolant got into your tranny its done. i dont care if you drove it for 20 miles its still done. by the time you notice the damage is already there. it will fail in the very near future and there is not much that can be done about this. i had this argument with a local guy here and 2 weeks later he was getting a tranny aswell. the coolant takes the oil film off the gears and you get metal on metal and it soaks into the rear box synchro and destroys it.

If it hasn't gone boom yet, pull the back end off and change the hi/lo synchro.
When it goes, it's debris destroys the ther components.
I did this the second time, knock on wood I'm at ~400k miles and it's still holding. I, under no delusions that the bearings and gears suffered minor damage, but so far so good...

[386lover]

Where can I find info on converting from water cooler to air? I tried some google searching and came up empty.

[Hammerhead]

(02-08-2017 )386lover Wrote:  Where can I find info on converting from water cooler to air? I tried some google searching and came up empty.

You've found it.
You can pull the fittings and install plugs in the head and the water pump for the coolant, or loop the lines from the head to the return if you prefer. You have to drain the coolant and refill to do this. Another nice option is install a Webasto or Espar engine heater using these lines for the coolant heater instead. Run new oil lines, which exit out the lower passenger side of the tranny through an air exchange cooler. Either use an OEM lower rad mount one, or find a place to nicely install a small hydraulic oil cooler, with a 12V thermostatically controlled fan if you like, somewhere under the truck. The backside of fuel tanks with mounting brackets off the fuel tank frame brackets is the most logical solution I've seen. I've also seen one mounted, painted, and very clean install to the lower rear of the bunk like an APU condenser.

I thought I had a cooler issue out in northern QC last fall, so I flushed the tranny twice with ATF, looped the lines, and filled it with good 75/90 to get home. I was grossing 175,000lbs, and my tranny ran at 180*, and climbed to 190-195* when pulling the big hills. I talked to some of the northern Quebec logging truck guys to see if I could find a cooler on the weekend when I was having the issue. They told me they just loop the oil lines together, no cooler. They use good 75/90 synthetic oil. They do this quite successfully hauling 100,000lbs payloads, on gravel roads. Liquid coolers cannot hold up to the conditions (vibration, banging, & jarring) so they found a solution.
If I didn't pull such big weights, I'd try running with looped lines for a while just to see what it will do.
If your cooler isn't leaking but your worried about it, and I would be because it's not if its when, just join the oil lines together from the cooler at the tranny where it's easy. Make up another short line that you can loop the tranny fittings to and experiment. If it doesn't work for you, you could very easily reconnect your cooler. If it does work, but you wanna run your cooler, you now have an emergency bypass system you can use to limp yourself home when the time actually comes, or even just if you're suspicious it's leaking, but you don't wanna take the chance.
To do this you need;
-one JIC male-male to join the hoses (JIC female ends) currently on your truck. A couple fittings to make a nice male-U-male would be very slick for older heat hardened lines.
-one hose about 18-24" long with two female 45* JIC fittings - install to loop the in/out fittings off the tranny.
-a handful of good zip-ties to route, tie, and keep hoses from flopping around.
-voila! One emergency liquid tranny cooler bypass system.

[Matt]

mounting one to the back to of the fuel tank brackets perpendicular to the frame rails is exactly what I plan on doing to mine.

[Hammerhead]

(02-09-2017 )Matt Wrote:  mounting one to the back to of the fuel tank brackets perpendicular to the frame rails is exactly what I plan on doing to mine.

You going fan model? Or just air exchange?
For the weight you pull, just to have the option at the very least with just air exchange, make sure that it has the fan mountable option available just in case you need it later.

[Matt]

(02-09-2017 )Hammerhead Wrote:  

(02-09-2017 )Matt Wrote:  mounting one to the back to of the fuel tank brackets perpendicular to the frame rails is exactly what I plan on doing to mine.

You going fan model? Or just air exchange?
For the weight you pull, just to have the option at the very least with just air exchange, make sure that it has the fan mountable option available just in case you need it later.

probably air exchange for now and keep a close eye on my temps. We don't leave the flat land often (once in nearly 3 years so far) so I'll see how it goes, but i'll definitely leave the option open for a fan cooler.

[386lover]

(02-09-2017 )Hammerhead Wrote:  

(02-08-2017 )386lover Wrote:  Where can I find info on converting from water cooler to air? I tried some google searching and came up empty.

You've found it.
You can pull the fittings and install plugs in the head and the water pump for the coolant, or loop the lines from the head to the return if you prefer. You have to drain the coolant and refill to do this. Another nice option is install a Webasto or Espar engine heater using these lines for the coolant heater instead. Run new oil lines, which exit out the lower passenger side of the tranny through an air exchange cooler. Either use an OEM lower rad mount one, or find a place to nicely install a small hydraulic oil cooler, with a 12V thermostatically controlled fan if you like, somewhere under the truck. The backside of fuel tanks with mounting brackets off the fuel tank frame brackets is the most logical solution I've seen. I've also seen one mounted, painted, and very clean install to the lower rear of the bunk like an APU condenser.

I thought I had a cooler issue out in northern QC last fall, so I flushed the tranny twice with ATF, looped the lines, and filled it with good 75/90 to get home. I was grossing 175,000lbs, and my tranny ran at 180*, and climbed to 190-195* when pulling the big hills. I talked to some of the northern Quebec logging truck guys to see if I could find a cooler on the weekend when I was having the issue. They told me they just loop the oil lines together, no cooler. They use good 75/90 synthetic oil. They do this quite successfully hauling 100,000lbs payloads, on gravel roads. Liquid coolers cannot hold up to the conditions (vibration, banging, & jarring) so they found a solution.
If I didn't pull such big weights, I'd try running with looped lines for a while just to see what it will do.
If your cooler isn't leaking but your worried about it, and I would be because it's not if its when, just join the oil lines together from the cooler at the tranny where it's easy. Make up another short line that you can loop the tranny fittings to and experiment. If it doesn't work for you, you could very easily reconnect your cooler. If it does work, but you wanna run your cooler, you now have an emergency bypass system you can use to limp yourself home when the time actually comes, or even just if you're suspicious it's leaking, but you don't wanna take the chance.
To do this you need;
-one JIC male-male to join the hoses (JIC female ends) currently on your truck. A couple fittings to make a nice male-U-male would be very slick for older heat hardened lines.
-one hose about 18-24" long with two female 45* JIC fittings - install to loop the in/out fittings off the tranny.
-a handful of good zip-ties to route, tie, and keep hoses from flopping around.
-voila! One emergency liquid tranny cooler bypass system.

Awesome Info! Thanks!