Hole in hydraulic oil cooler

[Eugen]

There was a small leak which seemed to get worse over time so I had a look. Found it. Someone in the past tried to fix it with some sort of green melted plastic, and it held for a while until it didn't. Unfortunately all my parts tractors have the other style radiator, with inlet on the other side as the outlet.

Tried fixing it with aluminum stick and the torch.

Didn't hold. I'm thinking maybe JB Weld. What do you guys think?

[propane1]

I would think it would have to be cleaned very good to get some thing to stick. Maybe you did that though. Was thinking those aluminum rods used with a torch at the first when I started reading the post. J B weld might work.
I’ll keep thinking.

Noel

[DavidBarkey]

There was a small leak which seemed to get worse over time so I had a look. Found it. Someone in the past tried to fix it with some sort of green melted plastic, and it held for a while until it didn't. Unfortunately all my parts tractors have the other style radiator, with inlet on the other side as the outlet.


BE9950AD-17DD-480B-B28E-6E68FD8429C3.jpeg

CA00DBE7-6F47-4010-9491-43027F817A9D.jpeg


Tried fixing it with aluminum stick and the torch.


8C447898-EB2F-4E75-B784-FD4D47E96211.jpeg


Didn't hold. I'm thinking maybe JB Weld. What do you guys think?

I will look and see if I have one .
Once the aluminum get contaminated with oil , it is very hard to get it clean enough to get a proper seal .
What tractor did it come off ?

[DavidBarkey]

I have seen this damage before . So what I do now is to put a sleeve of clear tubing (Fuel hose) over the screw so that it comes loose it will not do this kind of damage to the cooler .

[Eugen]

Well, tried my best to clean it, even filed the area some. This is from the 444 on snow duty. There's no real pressure there. Maybe a piece of hose with ring clamps will do. I'll see what I come up with tonight.

[RoamingGnome]

An "old school" rad shop should be able to flush out that cooler and braze up the leak...

Out of curiosity were you using a brazing rod like this https://www.princessauto.com/en/7-pc-1- ... 0008676884 -

There shouldn't be much pressure going through the cooler - If you had it really cleaned up JB weld might do the trick...

[Eugen]

Yes, I used this brazing rod

Either it wasn't clean enough or I didn't heat it up enough out of fear I melt the spot.

[RoamingGnome]

That rod should do the job, - one of the issues I found with welding / brazing something like an oil cooler or hyd tank was residual oil could creep into the joint when the base metal heats up and prevent a 100% seal with no pinholes.

You are on track for a short term fix - rubber hose, slit lengthwise and held on with lots of hose clamps (skinny ones if you have them) and then afterwards some sandpaper, lots of brake clean and give the JB weld a try - I've used it to patch more than a few rotted oil pans and fuel tanks.

[Eugen]

That rod should do the job, - one of the issues I found with welding / brazing something like an oil cooler or hyd tank was residual oil could creep into the joint when the base metal heats up and prevent a 100% seal with no pinholes.

You are on track for a short term fix - rubber hose, slit lengthwise and held on with lots of hose clamps (skinny ones if you have them) and then afterwards some sandpaper, lots of brake clean and give the JB weld a try - I've used it to patch more than a few rotted oil pans and fuel tanks.

I cleaned it as well as I could with brake cleaner but didn't flush the oil from inside. I was afraid to heat it up too much because it's pretty thin. I once did that on a different job and the spot I was trying to fix melted so fast.

Cleaned it again and rubbed some sandpaper on a larger area, then applied jb weld. Will test tomorrow.

Thanks guys! And @DavidBarkey , I applied your method with a piece of hose around around the bolt, great idea!

[propane1]

Hope you got it Eugen. Lucky me I have a tractor buddie only 5 minutes away from me who does that aluminum welding work. He’s fixed a few things for me over the years.

Noel