Transmission Cooler on 1976

[76okievette]

I have some questions about what I think is a Transmission Cooler on my 1976.
I can't find anywhere if a Transmission Cooler was a option in 1976. Most Transmission Cooler's have metal lines mine has rubber. The one on my car is mounted in very front of the car and lays almost flat has a rubber intake and output line. The lines say Transmission on them, I have not followed them all the way back to where the go, I just noticed this since one of the lines was leaking and I just assumed it was a transmission cooler. Since my car is 100% stock I thought it was factory installed but I can't find any reference to a transmission cooler either stock or a option. So what do you thing is this a add on that someone has put on or could be factory installed?

 

[1979toy]

It sounds like someone has installed an aftermarket transmission cooler on your car. That is not a bad thing at all.

 

[Robin7TFour]

OKIE, can you post a picture of your cooler installation. my cooler was bypassed from the tranny to an external unit. your mounting sounds like a better way than just putting it in front of the rad, like mine


thanks

robin

 

[76okievette]

I would love to post a pic of it but am having a hard time figuring out how to post pics. I will take some and try to post.

 

[MaineShark]

The factory automatic transmission cooler is installed in the right-side radiator end tank. Metal lines run from the transmission to just in front of the engine crossmember. Rubber lines go from there to the nipples on the radiator. If you have a cooler that is external to the radiator, it is aftermarket.

Joe

 

[76okievette]

Thanks Joe, I am pretty sure then that I have a external cooler, I will check it out completely see who makes so I will know. Thanks again.

 

[MaineShark]

You might also want to take a look at the radiator, to see if there are a couple stubby pipes sticking out on the right-side tank. If not, it's possible that a previous owner replaced the radiator with a radiator that was intended for a manual-transmission car, and had to add the external cooler to compensate.

If the pipes are there, and the hoses include them, then the external cooler is probably added in-line with the OEM cooler, just to add extra cooling capacity. If you aren't worried about being 100% original, then I'd suggest leaving it installed - added cooling will help to protect your transmission, since excess heat is one of the primary causes of transmission failures.

Joe