How to install a Derale 20561 transmission cooler on your Wrangler TJ

I took the cooler off today to check on the leaks I was seeing from the fittings.

The o-rings were on the correct side, but both were partially cut. It seems like they are just slightly too small and want to roll up onto the threads, then were getting pinched. I ran out to autozone to try to find a replacement, but what I saw there seemed to be too thick to serve as a replacement. My attempted solution for now is to flip them around so the unbroken side is facing the cooler, and use high temp thread sealer on the threads and around the o-ring. Tomorrow I’ll test to see whether it worked.

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Well after one year almost to the day and 3500 Miles my Derale Transmission cooler has sprung a leak. It is leaking at the U shaped bend on the long tube. I called Derale today and informed them about the issue. They said to get with the seller "amazon" and see if i could return the item. I believe they only have a 90 day policy so i think im SOL. I could be wrong with the last statement but pretty sure that's the policy.

My question can i find a 3/8 U shaped barbed tube and hose clamp it down? or use the current one? The current fittings looked pressed on. My kit came with black u shaped tube compared with the red one in the photos.
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Well after one year almost to the day and 3500 Miles my Derale Transmission cooler has sprung a leak. It is leaking at the U shaped bend on the long tube. I called Derale today and informed them about the issue. They said to get with the seller "amazon" and see if i could return the item. I believe they only have a 90 day policy so i think im SOL. I could be wrong with the last statement but pretty sure that's the policy.

My question can i find a 3/8 U shaped barbed tube and hose clamp it down? or use the current one? The current fittings looked pressed on. My kit came with black u shaped tube compared with the red one in the photos.

That's lame service on Derale's part!! You could just make your own U shaped fitting with a few brass elbows and barbed fittings. I would maybe use 1/2" elbows just so that it doesn't choke/restrict the flow with too tight of bends at 3/8". That would give it less resistance in the elbows for flow. At least that's what I'd do. Few bucks at the local hardware store and you're done.
Is it the tube itself on the bend that's leaking?
 
That's lame service on Derale's part!! You could just make your own U shaped fitting with a few brass elbows and barbed fittings. I would maybe use 1/2" elbows just so that it doesn't choke/restrict the flow with too tight of bends at 3/8". That would give it less resistance in the elbows for flow. At least that's what I'd do. Few bucks at the local hardware store and you're done.
Is it the tube itself on the bend that's leaking?
So I ended up putting two hose clamps right behind the crimped fittings and it seems to solve the problem. I also crimped the original fitting a little more as well. Below is a picture of the leak after I cleaned it with break clean and started it up for 1 minute. The leak was coming from the crimped hose.
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For those of you have installed this, is there still room for a small on board air tank that is typically installed in that same area? I have both installing this cooler, and on board air on my long mods list.
 
For those of you have installed this, is there still room for a small on board air tank that is typically installed in that same area? I have both installing this cooler, and on board air on my long mods list.
I don’t think it would work with my air tank that was mounted in the same spot.

I ordered a derale cooler that didn’t have the kit and mounted it rearward of the tank further up under the tub.

Mine is an LJ but my cooler is right behind the rear seat foot pocket.

I used this Derale 13950 Atomic Cool
 
Not so simple for the TJU.

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So... yeah. Has anyone actually installed one of these on an '05/'06 with the swedged cooler lines? There's no hose clamps, so when the instructions say: "Disconnect the factory rubber transmission return hose from both ends and remove" — um.. you can't really do that.

I'm disinterested in splicing a bunch of old and new rubber lines together, and even less enthusiastic about sourcing all new hard lines. There's a solution I'm not thinking about. Ideas?
 
So... yeah. Has anyone actually installed one of these on an '05/'06 with the swedged cooler lines? There's no hose clamps, so when the instructions say: "Disconnect the factory rubber transmission return hose from both ends and remove" — um.. you can't really do that.

I'm disinterested in splicing a bunch of old and new rubber lines together, and even less enthusiastic about sourcing all new hard lines. There's a solution I'm not thinking about. Ideas?
On my 06 LJ I used one of these for the outlet of the radiator

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hose clamped to this and disconnected factory line then inserted new line.

My factory lines were leaking anyway so had to be removed.

I couldn’t remove the line returning to the transmission so I dremmeled the leaky swedged line off and hose clamped to that.

the benefit of what I did is if I have a leak for some reason it would only take a short hose and a couple clamps to bypass all the aux cooler lines.
 
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On my 06 LJ I used one of these for the outlet of the radiator

View attachment 135103hose clamped to this and disconnected factory line then inserted new line.

My factory lines were leaking anyway so had to be removed.

I couldn’t remove the line returning to the transmission so I dremmeled the leaky swedged line off and hose clamped to that.

the benefit of what I did is if I have a leak for some reason it would only take a short hose and a couple clamps to bypass all the aux cooler lines.

O.K. — that's a workaround for sure. But I guess I'm going to have to look at a new return line altogether. Would prefer not to be hose clamping to cut hard lines without decent barbs on them.
 
With a recent series of serious overheating incidents while offroading and towing my little pop-up trailer, I decided to hasten my plans to install an auxiliary transmission cooler for my 42RLE automatic transmission. I had added one to my previous TJ that had the more robust 32RH, but Jeep’s newer automatic transmission like my 2004 Rubicon has is far fussier about such things.

High temperatures are the #1 killer of automatic transmissions. So, it makes a lot of sense to make sure it doesn’t overheat while towing trailers, rock crawling, offroading, or just plain crawling in heavy traffic on a hot day. How to do that? Add an auxiliary transmission cooler.

After much research, I decided on a stacked plate transmission cooler from Derale Performance, a well known manufacturer of cooling products for everything from engine oil to automatic transmissions. With over fifty years of making nothing but such products, it was clear to me that Derale knows what they are doing.

After viewing their catalog, it turns out that Derale Performance makes an automatic transmission cooler kit specifically made for the Jeep Wrangler, “Part # 20561 Direct Fit Remote Cooler, 87-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ, YJ.” Very cool, that is exactly what I need!

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You can purchase the Derale 20561 transmission cooler here.

Mounted to the frame, this type of fan-based stacked plate transmission cooler uses a thermostatically controlled switch to turn its 500 CFM fan on when the ATF reaches 180 degrees and off after it has cooled it back down to 170 degrees. No frame drilling or frame modification is required to mount it to the frame; it comes with a very cool two-piece clamp-style mount that makes the mounting process very simple. Derale says this kit can lower the transmission fluid temps by 30 to 40 degrees.

This is the box that arrived… you can see it is nicely packaged specifically for the Wrangler.

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It comes well packaged and it contains every thing needed to install it, down to zip ties for the electrical wiring. The only tools you need are minimal and very basic. If you have SAE size wrenches, a pair of pliers, wire cutters, and a solderless connection crimp tool, you’re good to go. A nice additional tool would be a heat gun and heat shrink tubing for the fan’s electrical connections.

It was engineered to be easily installed by anyone with basic hand tools and that’s what it turned out to be… a very easy non-technical job. The mount and fan frame are unique to the Wrangler kit so no mods are needed to get it to fit perfectly.

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Even the two supplied coolant hoses are already cut precisely to length and are complete with fancy red and blue anodized AN fittings. AN fittings are the standard for high-quality builds, you won’t have leaks from these.

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One of the first things I noticed about Derale’s kit was its set of instructions. It’s clear Derale put some serious time and effort into them. They are complete, extremely well illustrated, and leave nothing for you to have to figure out. Check them out below.

Derale Instructions: https://derale.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/pdfs/20561.pdf

First things first, position the cooler on your workbench so you can attach its two fittings, install its thermostat switch, and do the very basic wiring so the thermostat switch can turn the fan on and off.

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Thread the aluminum fittings, the two on the left above, onto the fan assembly’s inlet and outlet connectors. Note that the o-ring shown above on the left-most fitting actually goes on the OTHER side of that fitting. The o-ring needs to be on the side of the fitting that threads into the cooler, not on the hose side as shown in the picture.

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Please don't beat me up too much for using the Crescent wrench on that 1 1/16" fitting, my SAE open-end/box-end set set only goes up to 1".

Attach the thermostat switch and its aluminum fitting as shown below using a 7/8” and 1 1/16” wrench. The thermostat switch’s sensor protrudes into its fitting far enough so it can actually touch the ATF as it is pumped through. Use a bit of Locktite on the middle of the thermostat switch’s threads to insure it doesn’t unscrew from the engine’s vibrations. Do not use a wrench to tighten the thermostat switch, it should only be firmly hand-tightened.

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The thermostat switch and fitting assembly is then screwed into the cooler’s input port.

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Wiring the thermostat switch in is easy, it is a simple on-off switch that turns the fan on and off based on the temperature of the transmission’s ATF fluid. The switch turns the fan on when the ATF reaches 180 degrees, well below the temperature where damage could occur to the ATF or transmission. The switch shuts the fan off after the ATF has been cooled back down to 170 degrees.

ATF can operate at 200 degrees without damage but much above that and it can become damaged. Synthetic ATF+4 can withstand a bit more heat but not much. The use of a transmission cooler can prevent your transmission from ever getting up into the danger zone of over 200 degrees. At 220, ATF begins to break down. As said above, heat is the enemy of an automatic transmission.

Note the following very carefully. MOST of the time, the black wire is negative and the colored wire is positive. In this kit, to get the fan to turn the right direction so it pulls cool air through the stacked plate cooler, the black wire is POSITIVE and the blue wire is NEGATIVE and it is the BLUE wire that gets grounded. Per the Derale instructions, simply read the label on the fan to verify which color is positive and negative so the fan doesn’t turn the wrong direction.

I used a bit of plastic wire loom to protect the wiring and then zip-tied it to an adhesive zip-tie holder to keep the wires where they belong.

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Next, connect the supplied red wire to the other side of the thermostat fan switch. This wire connects the fan to a +12v source. Derale recommends the +12v be switched, which means the power should only be on when the ignition switch is on. Derale provides an inline fuse holder and blade style fuse to protect everything. Slip the red wire into the provided protective plastic wire loom before mounting the fan.

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I cover every splice and every crimped connection with protective insulated heat-shrink tubing. Heat shrink tubing is inexpensive, better, and quicker than wrapping connections and splices with electrical tape. This pic shows a heat gun being used to shrink the heat shrink tubing that can be found in any hardware store, Home Depot, Radio Shack, etc.

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With the fan pre-wired and its hose connectors installed, it is time to install its mount to the Jeep’s frame. The top part goes inside, the smaller part slips over the frame from the outside.

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The mount leaves plenty of room for the fuel lines and wiring that run along the frame.

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The cooler is attached to the clamp with three bolts. Its angle can be positioned from flat to angled. Once it is at the angle you like, tighten the bolts. For me, it worked best by sliding the mount a bit further rearward and using the forward-most mounting bolt holes. It gives you a choice between two positions, the most forward position worked best for me.

The mount itself is well designed and purposely made from two gauges of steel. The heavier side securely holds the cooler to the frame and away from the fuel and electrical lines underneath. The other half of the mount is still a heavy-gauge steel but it is designed to provide a clamping effect when it bends slightly to conform to the frame and inside mount as the mounting nuts and bolts are given those final turns. The mount holds the fan very securely.

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For some, that position may seem to be exposed. However, it’s not as exposed as it may seem to be since it has the frame, skidplate, and control arm bracket on three sides of it. I will likely fabricate an additional guard to provide a little added insurance against a rock being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this makes you feel better, I had my previous TJ’s on-board air tank in the same position and after nearly ten years on the rocks, the rocks never touched the air tank.

View attachment 4887

The electrical line plus coolant lines are attached and tightened before the fan is clamped into its final position and passed forward. They are routed next to the frame and above the transfer case skidplate.

Coolant hose routing and connections
The two coolant hoses are routed along the driver’s side of the frame towards the radiator. The two hoses are connected to the radiator's transmission cooler output side, so the Derale system cools the ATF flowing back towards the transmission. Which side of the radiator's transmission cooler the Derale gets connected into, passenger-side or driver's side, depends on your TJ's model year and thus its transmission type.

For 2002 and older models which use the 3-speed 32RH or 30RH transmission, the Derale cooler lines connect to the passenger-side transmission output port of the radiator and the hard line the OE passenger-side hose used to connect to. Entirely remove the OE short hose that connected the passenger-side transmission cooler port to the hard line, connect the new Derale hoses to those fittings.

The current Derale instructions do not address the change in which way the ATF flows through the radiator transmission cooler for 2003 and newer TJs so the following modification to where its hoses connect should be followed:

For 2003 and newer models which use the 4-speed 42RLE transmission, the Derale cooler lines connect to the driver's-side transmission output port and the hard line the OE driver's-side hose used to connect to. Entirely remove the OE short hose that connected the driver's-side transmission cooler port to the hard line, connect the new Derale hoses to those fittings.

The Derale kit does not otherwise need any additional parts or modifications other than the supply hose leading to the Derale (the plain hose) now has perhaps 6" of extra available length. I left the additional length in place and located the small amount of extra length above the t-case skidplate. Those extra inches of available hose for 2003 and newer TJs may come in handy years down the road.

I expect Derale to add a section to their instructions to cover the 2003 and newer TJ whose transmission cooler flows the ATF through the OE transmission cooler in the opposite direction of the 2002 and older TJ.

The below photo shows the 2003 and newer hose layout connected into the driver's side. For 2002 and older, connect the Derale into passenger side instead.

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The first hose from the Derale cooler connects to the radiator’s return line. Derale includes two stainless steel hose clamps to be used here and on the other line but I reused the factory constant-tension spring clamps.

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The other new hose, which is the return line, connects here after the old hose is removed.

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Derale provides a cool way of attaching the coolant lines to the frame rail which serves to keep them parallel and out of the way of damage. Also provided are zip-ties to secure the hoses and wiring the rest of the way to their destination. Take pain now to insure everything is well secured and out of the way of potential harm.

The two (+ and -) electrical connections are made now.

The negative ground wire, remember, is the blue wire coming from the fan. NOT the black wire which for us electrical types keeps you on your feet. Connect the fan’s blue ground wire to a suitable ground connection. I simply drilled a 9/64” hole in the floor pan above the cooler for the supplied hex-head self-tapping ground screw.

To assure a good solid ground connection, be sure to grind any paint away from what you choose to ground the fan to as shown below. A Dremel tool makes quick work of this.

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Sorry about the fuzzy photo, it’s just to show to take care in how the wiring is routed.

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I connected the cooler’s +12v lead to an auxiliary fuse panel I installed last year.

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The last thing to be done is to add a quart of Valvoline ATF+4. This is needed due to the added capacity of the new Derale transmission cooler.

Don’t do what I did and pour the ATF in faster than the transmission fill tube can accommodate it! Within a minute or two, I had ATF dripping all over the floor and it scared the crap out of me. I had been careful about all the hose connections so it was a scary few minutes until I discovered the ATF had simply overflowed the fill tube. Add the quart of ATF+4 slowly and this won’t happen to you.

Voila, it’s ready for the test! I simply temporary bridged the connection at the thermostat switch and the fan came to life with a definitely audible satisfying roar. You’ll be able to hear it come on if you’re doing low-speed trail work, maybe not on the highway towing your trailer.

Start the engine, let it warm up and check for leaks. I put my hand on the new cooler once it was good and warmed up and it was definitely hot… but not up to 180 degrees because the fan was still off. It took some driving to warm it up enough that the fan came on. Good to go!

This is the final product. Even though I know from past experience that particular location is quite safe, I’m a bit anal about over-protecting everything underneath so I added a protective barrier since this Jeep wheels on a lot of big rocks.

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So in summary, the benefits of installing this transmission kit are...
  • Longer transmission life
  • Reduces the transmission’s ATF temperature by a very significant 30 to 40 degrees
  • Easily installed, completely bolt-in with no special skills needed
  • Thermostatically controlled 500 CFM fan
  • Peace of mind when towing, rock crawling, or just heavy traffic.
The quality of the stacked plate cooler itself is outstanding. This is not the cheap type of cooler that NAPA pushes for everything that is easily damaged by even flying insects. Its design is truly heavy-duty without the cheap aluminum fins that get squished together which reduces cooler efficiency. It’s a first-class stacked plate cooler that you have to see to appreciate.

The fan is big and also obviously built to last in the elements of water, mud, and dirt that will inevitably be flipped up onto it. When the fan turns on, it really pulls the air through the plates with authority. 500 CFM (cubic feet/minute).

Last step in the installation... drive it for a week and then get back underneath and check for any leaks where the hoses connect to the cooler. I found one that was weeping a tiny bit, probably from when I had to temporarily disconnect it to reinstall the fittings after learning that I had the two o-rings installed incorrectly. Give the AN fittings a quick test for tightness and re-tighten as needed.

What would I change if this was my product? Basically not a thing, it’s truly a great kit as is. If I had to come up with one enhancement, it’d be slightly longer hoses to give a bit more leeway on hose routing. The hose lengths are technically “perfect” as they were designed but just a tad more length would allow more flexibility in hose routing.

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This is on my to do list. Thanks for this detailed write up.
 
So I ended up putting two hose clamps right behind the crimped fittings and it seems to solve the problem. I also crimped the original fitting a little more as well. Below is a picture of the leak after I cleaned it with break clean and started it up for 1 minute. The leak was coming from the crimped hose. View attachment 124743

Is the fix you put in still holding.

I've noticed today that I am leaking in the same place. I've had mine for almost 2 years. Looking to find a long term fix. This should last alot longer than a couple years. Looking for ideas or to know if your fix has solved it.
 

I have similar seeping issues I am trying to clean up with. Has anyone come up with a direct fit replacement for the transmission lines with these Derale coolers? I never liked all the back and forth with the U-bend on mine. Seems a direct connection from the radiator to cooler and then cooler to transmission would make sense.
 
Constant tension clamps might solve your problem. The factory uses a clamp similar to the 16mm constant tension tension bands Grainger sells. 3/8 hose isn't too expensive and there are a million solutions to join 3/8 tube and hose to just about anything you can think of. I just finished up a large cooler in front of the radiator using these clamps and 5/8 hydraulic hose supports to anchor the hose, it wan't difficult once I got into it.
 
@Jerry Bransford,
so my 04 pressure line is DS on the radiator.
your running to the cooler then into the rad., correct?


maybe overthinking , but with a simple heat sink tube, might it be better to run rad. > cooler > return to trans.
cooler b4 radiator seems it'll never shed more than the radiator temp.
cooler after could allow it to shed more heat once the radiator has done it's job, no?

or are you dictated to use the pump to push do to your remote location? i'm condensed all up front, no long runs.
 
@Jerry Bransford,
so my 04 pressure line is DS on the radiator.
your running to the cooler then into the rad., correct?


maybe overthinking , but with a simple heat sink tube, might it be better to run rad. > cooler > return to trans.
cooler b4 radiator seems it'll never shed more than the radiator temp.
cooler after could allow it to shed more heat once the radiator has done it's job, no?

or are you dictated to use the pump to push do to your remote location? i'm condensed all up front, no long runs.
Cooler should be after radiator, in the return line to the transmission. Pretty sure that’s how Jerry’s is run.

Coolant hose routing and connections
The two coolant hoses are routed along the driver’s side of the frame towards the radiator. The two hoses are connected to the radiator's transmission cooler output side, so the Derale system cools the ATF flowing back towards the transmission. Which side of the radiator's transmission cooler the Derale gets connected into, passenger-side or driver's side, depends on your TJ's model year and thus its transmission type.”
 
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For 2003 and newer models which use the 4-speed 42RLE transmission, the Derale cooler lines connect to the driver's-side transmission output port and the hard line the OE driver's-side hose used to connect to. Entirely remove the OE short hose that connected the driver's-side transmission cooler port to the hard line, connect the new Derale hoses to those fittings.


i read this 10x i think i'm just bassakwards....................when he states "transmission output port" he's describing the radiator port, yes? not the transmission line. this is what was tripping me i just need to slow down and think for a min.

so this is the trans cooler output i'm connecting to on the driver side, then my cooler then back home to the pan.
 
For 2003 and newer models which use the 4-speed 42RLE transmission, the Derale cooler lines connect to the driver's-side transmission output port and the hard line the OE driver's-side hose used to connect to. Entirely remove the OE short hose that connected the driver's-side transmission cooler port to the hard line, connect the new Derale hoses to those fittings.


i read this 10x i think i'm just bassakwards....................when he states "transmission output port" he's describing the radiator port, yes? not the transmission line. this is what was tripping me i just need to slow down and think for a min.

so this is the trans cooler output i'm connecting to on the driver side, then my cooler then back home to the pan.
Yes, radiator transmission cooler output port.
 
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Hey guys, I just did this install last week. Looking at the instructions, I thought I could knock it out on a Sunday. Ended up spending 2-3 hours a night during the week to do it. Here are the things I ran into:

1) My fan did not have the label telling you which wire is ground and a blue and a black wire. I originally followed Jerry's instructions but reading through the thread, it looks like there might be variances depending on build date so I bench tested mine and it turned out that blue is power and black is ground for mine.

2) Didn't seem to be mentioned in the rest of this thread so might have just been a problem for me but my cooler didn't have the full rotation on the mount because the head of the lower mounting screw to the bracket would hit the cooler to frame mounting bracket when tilting the cooler. This made it so I could only mount it about 45 degrees or more (very vertical). I was going to try it at 45 degrees, but that made one of the lines touch the bottom of the body (even with my 1.25" body lift) so I took it out and trimmed the cooler to frame mounting bracket where the screw hit so it could rotate the full motion.

3) Taking off the trans/transfer case skid would have made things much easier, but me being the stubborn and lazy person I am, I did not want to remove it. This made it much harder to install the mounting brackets for me until I figured out the install order. First, I removed the cooler from its frame. I was doing this anyway because of the trimming from #2 and I was going to add a shield similar to Jerry's. Then I mounted the frame bracket first. Then I mounted the cooler frame to the frame bracket and positioned everything where i wanted it. I tightened all the bolts at this point. Then I installed all the hoses and wires on the cooler and then finally mounted the cooler to its frame. When you have the cooler off its frame, take care when handling it so you don't damage any of the fins.

4) Since I have an '04, the hose that connected to the radiator had lots of slack. The other hose (with the U bend) had a very tight tolerance. It fit fine, but it had a bit of tension when everything was hooked up. I didn't like that so in order to take the tension out, I trimmed off about 3/4" or so from the U bend side.

5) I wanted to use the OEM hose clamps instead of the ones supplied with the kit but the hoses that come with the kit has a little bit larger OD than what my OEM clamps could open up to so it would not fit over the new hoses. Not a big deal but just something to note.

6) The kit does not come with an inline fuse or anything like that anymore. They now come with a vampire tap instead. As an EE, I'm going to tell you to throw that in the garbage now because its junk. Just get a fuse tap like others have recommended here. If you're using the fuse box in the glove compartment, its a mini ATM fuse type. I already had some of these laying around from a previous project that would work:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DYQM6EO/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
Anyone add a trans temp gauge when installing this cooler? And if so, where did you mount the gauge and where did you tie into the line/transmission to get the temperature?