97 GC leaking tranny cooler. Removal help

Hello forum!

I am a long time Jeep owner and new to this forum. I am a regular on many forums and have owned a Commando, Grand Wagoneer, numerous CJ's and now a 1997 Grand Cherokee.

My dilemma
By the way, thanks in advance...

I have a tranny fluid leak under my transmission cooler. My questions:

1) How in the hell do you remove the transmission cooler without taking the front of the vehicle off or removing the AC condenser(per Haynes manual)?

2) Advnatages/disadvantages to installing an OEM or aftermarket transmission cooler?

3) Any common weaknesses in the stock transmission cooler? I am assuming it's the cooler and not the rubber 90 degree elbows that run into the cooler? Are theses rubber hoses known to leak?

Any insight you can give me would be helpful.

THanks again
-domn8r

Anyone?

its usually the rubber hoses that leak.sometimes you can just tighten the hose clamps

I only had to take the front grill off to get access to external oil cooler which was in front of the condenser. 97 GC. But, if you only have 1 oil cooler, the one integrated into the radiator, that's another story.
I think that taking the front off the jeep is a heck of alot easier than having to mess with the ac. Bumper is held in with plastic snaps that break off when removing, which can be easily replaced for $5. Grill, 4 screws, lights 8 screws, radiator 4 screws. I just carefully bent the a/c lines to move condenser out of the way. I lifted the radiator and cond as a unit until I could separate them. Hope it's not your radiator, I priced one for $300.

I feel that external coolers are the way to go. I've got 191,000 miles on it. Trans pooped out so I rebuilt it. I dont know about bypassing the cooler that goes into the radiator, though. Maybe someone else has a thought on that.

if u ever need to buy a new radiator go to radiator Express, give them a call, they are cheap. I just bought oen a couple months ago for my 94 ZJ 5.2L for $175, Dealer ship wanted a li lover $300 for one, rad. shop wanted $270, so they are alot cheaper then any other place I know of.

Like they said you will probably have to take the front apart. It really goes pretty quick. There's not too many bolts and most of them are easy to get at. The stock cooler is marginal at best. Since you have the front apart and are going to address the leak I would recommend getting a HD cooler and swap that in. There is no need to bypass any thing on the radiator. Just replace the stock cooler with a HD unit and be done. As for the radiator Radiatorbarn.com sells an all metal unit for $125 shipped/$155 shipped for the HD three row unit.
ByronP