BJS3D
Junior Member
Happy New Year, everyone. My son just picked up this gem today and already popped a brake line for being a typical 20 year old. That's not the issue, though.
Now, I'm not much of a Mopar guy myself, mostly because I'm into medium duty trucks and it's almost impossible to find an old Dodge medium duty. Nonetheless, I am a truck guy and this one issue kind of stands out as unique, something I've never seen before in my 4+ decades working on pickups. Where the brake fluid leak is presenting itself is where a rubber line meets up with the stainless right in front of the power steering pump... from a rubber line going into the radiator. I confirmed, it squirts brake fluid, not trans fluid, when the brake pedal is pressed and it's definitely running into the bottom of the radiator whereat a Chevy or Ford guy would expect to find an automatic transmission line.
Is this normal? Did Chrysler think that the brakes needed cooling more than the trans or is this some sort of cobble? If it is a cobble, what do you suspect the reason might have been to risk increased wear to the trans and why would the brakes be causing so much heat that the fluid needed to be chilled?
Other than a bit of rust here and there on the box, it's really not a bad truck. It had to have sat awhile because it's only got 100k miles on it but it runs amazingly well for its age. I just can't figure why in the flying [insert swear word of choice here] anyone would send brake fluid through the radiator. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated and definitely entertaining.
Now, I'm not much of a Mopar guy myself, mostly because I'm into medium duty trucks and it's almost impossible to find an old Dodge medium duty. Nonetheless, I am a truck guy and this one issue kind of stands out as unique, something I've never seen before in my 4+ decades working on pickups. Where the brake fluid leak is presenting itself is where a rubber line meets up with the stainless right in front of the power steering pump... from a rubber line going into the radiator. I confirmed, it squirts brake fluid, not trans fluid, when the brake pedal is pressed and it's definitely running into the bottom of the radiator whereat a Chevy or Ford guy would expect to find an automatic transmission line.
Is this normal? Did Chrysler think that the brakes needed cooling more than the trans or is this some sort of cobble? If it is a cobble, what do you suspect the reason might have been to risk increased wear to the trans and why would the brakes be causing so much heat that the fluid needed to be chilled?
Other than a bit of rust here and there on the box, it's really not a bad truck. It had to have sat awhile because it's only got 100k miles on it but it runs amazingly well for its age. I just can't figure why in the flying [insert swear word of choice here] anyone would send brake fluid through the radiator. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated and definitely entertaining.