Transmission Cooler Line Leak

[J33ps]

Hello!  I'm super new to comanches and this forum has been incredibly helpful (and nice to boot).  I took your suggestions with my lift situation, I got it back to stock everything.  I have no interest in wheeling and like the little truck as is -- I have a wrangler for wheeling

 

At any rate, while wrenching on it I noticed it's leaking out the radiator and it only leaks when I run it.  Not just pressure it up, it has to be driving.  Then I come back and it's got a puddle of red ATF fluid in the corner.  Seems like it's either the cooler portion of the radiator or the connection itself.

I know nothing about this, the TJ I have is a manual so none of this.  I did some searching and it seems people HATE these cooler lines.  So much so that they replace them with something.  But I'm not familiar enough to determine what they're replacing it with??

 

I suspect I need the stock setup because I live in the north east and it gets below freezing all winter -- seems the stock setup is more of a transmission warmer vs cooler.  Would it be wise to just buy the stock lines on rock auto and replace?  Is there some upgrade I should look into?  I'm confused by this whole concept haha.  -- I should probably just find the FSM and do some more digging there.

 

BTW, PO tells me this 1990 comanche has a 4.0 engine and auto tranny from a 1999 Cherokee -- not sure this matters and not sure they even replaced this radiator ever.

[ghetdjc320]

There are different approaches that should work here. Of course you can always replace the stock parts that have failed. Alternatively, you can upgrade the connections and lines using a method similar to this one: https://there4.io/2019/07/17/Jeep-XJ-Transmission-Cooler-Line-Ugrade/

[J33ps]

Ahh I’ll look through this!  I’m still a bit nervous going with xj instructions, is literally everything in the front of the truck XJ?  There’s no little Easter eggs I should be aware of?

 

edit - I just looked through the truck records again, he put an ‘88 tranny with a ‘99 4.0 whoops.  Not sure that really matters.  I’ll crawl under and see what kind it is.  

[ghetdjc320]

9 hours ago, J33ps said:

Ahh I’ll look through this!  I’m still a bit nervous going with xj instructions, is literally everything in the front of the truck XJ?  There’s no little Easter eggs I should be aware of?

 

edit - I just looked through the truck records again, he put an ‘88 tranny with a ‘99 4.0 whoops.  Not sure that really matters.  I’ll crawl under and see what kind it is.  

Yep, in regards to the cooler lines, they should be the same