| Author | Message | ||
     Ratbuell |
So I'm sick of the stiff braided oil hoses cracking oil coolers and making them leak on my Ulysses. Hoses that move with the engine, connected to a frame-mounted cooler... (Yes, my mounts are good and properly aligned) I'm going to retrofit some hi-pressure hose between the factory hard lines, and the -AN fittings on the cooler, to allow the hoses to flex and not transmit torque to the cooler. Are they -6AN? Just going to get AN to nipple fittings, and clamp the hoses at both ends. Wrapped for debris protection, of course... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Dr Greg replaced one or both of his hoses some years ago with locally fabricated hoses from a hydraulic shop. Try and find that thread or drop him a PM for the info. Note that the 08-up bikes don't have the stiff braided metal hoses, so the factory may have realized they were an issue. | ||
| Teeps |
Rat, how many miles to the first and second failures? I'm know I'm going to regret saying this, but they crack and leak? | ||
| Ratbuell |
The coolers mist enough oil that my left boot and the primary cover get a sheen to them (and the primary collects road grime). No drips or anything, just...oil appearing outside the cooler. I seem to go 10-15k miles per cooler. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
The hell? Is this just bad luck? I haven't heard that they were failure-prone. Anyone else have failures? | ||
| Teeps |
Rat, By your count, I should be on cooler #3. Without going and looking at my bike, I suspect there is something peculiar with your bike. Like the front dog bone links or front motor mount. Oil line routing or attachments. | ||
| Arry |
I replaced my original cooler at 15.7k. It had a slow, messy, annoying leak for quite a while. I had never thought about the stiffness of the hoses being the problem, but it makes sense. No sign of leaking on the replacement, about (10k) | ||
| Ratbuell |
Ok so I finally got to putting the X on the lift. Dremel tool cut off the compression fittings from both the cooler end, and the hard lines. Nice hard line attached to the -AN couplers on the cooler, PERFECT for clamping some fresh rubber hose to! Should have it done and buttoned up so I can ride it this weekend. Hopefully this will be the last of my oil cooler leaks  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
If you're going to do that, I would suggest a flare tool to make it harder to the hose to pop off. | ||
| Smorris |
be sure to use oil line hose not fuel line. this is a quick fix, not a solution. | ||
| Ratbuell |
The tubing is already inverse-flared from the initial crimping. I'm thinking it'll be more than temporary, since this is basically what the factory went to on later bikes (no braided lines). And if not...it's a simple fix now that the cutting is done. 4 hose clamps and I'll have both hoses replaced in 5 minutes from now on. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Avoid standard worm drive screw clamps. Use something that has wide, flat, contact for the full circumference. Worm drive clamps are always tighter at the screw housing. Fuel injection hose clamps should work. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Ditto on fuel injection hose clamps. More expensive and not all stores have the size you need, whatever that is. That's all I use on 96 road king and sporster sport and well worth the trouble to go find! |
