Why would my trans cooler mounts break?

[nutt7]

Hey guys, after 10 miles in on a non-maintained forest road, I did a once-around and noticed my aftermarket trans cooler and oil cooler were sort of banging around between the grill and condenser. The tranny cooler is an aftermarket unit and two of the the bolt hole mounts broke! (not bent or wiggled loose) It was mounted directly to the center beam of the core support and heavy duty plumbers strap to the passenger side of the support. Why would two of the mounts break? After looking closer at my core support, it has some cracks too! Could something make it flex so much that it would cause this? The road was bumpy, but no major flexy parts.

Also, the oil cooler mounts didn't break, but it is missing 3 bolts which were nut and bolted in with lock washers. Maybe they sheared? The factory screws went missing once, which is why I bolted them in. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

P.S. thanks to spare speaker wire and duct tape, I was able to rig it to get me home safely. And to think that I almost forgot my trail kit...

 

[British Slave]

Nylocks.

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

I was gonna say Loc-tite, but Nylocks would work.

 

[nutt7]

What do you think would cause the breaking? Should I mount the coolers to the condenser with those little through-core-things?

 

[British Slave]

I would throw a guess that the nuts and bolts got loose from vibration, then the cooler was allowed to move around and work hardened the straps. Then they broke. I have an oversized cooler on mine and have never had a problem. Nylocks are a bolts best friend.

 

[nutt7]

My radiator support has at least 4 cracks. Everything in there is just jiggling around. One of my refrigerant lines had scrapes on it, and the core support is 3/4 inch away from it. The two frame-to-radiator support nuts and bolts are loose. Those buggers don't want to tighten either. No wonder all this happened. I just want to know what caused what . I got a whole lotta fun in the sun coming up...

 

[British Slave]

I think I would go thru and tighten everything up. I would be looking for a radiator support. If it's cracked, it's going to be tough to keep everything working as a single unit.