Oil cooler mountings

[MooreMatthew]

Been reading through projects and other groups and heard some say that mounting the oil cooler solid not on rubbers will cause cooler to crack 

ive just got a hel cooler and this is solid mounted anyone had a issue before 

bandit 1200 bike 

[370steve]

i have mine fitted like this to my GS framed B12 engine, bolted to frame 

[Nick]

I used these little rubber 'ring' type grommets between the cooler and the mount to kill the vibes.  So far, so good...

[wraith]

Done it both ways in the past, first bolted the cooler strate to the frame on the gs,kat and other bikes and had no problems. I have also used rubber rings between the frame and the cooler bracket over the years and I've not seen any difference between the two ways.

[bernardo]

I hard bolted mine on the slabby, never had a problem

[MooreMatthew]

Good to hear thanks for that 

always safe to ask the question 

cheers again

[Dezza]

I use a stainless steel bracket at the top rather than alloy, all bolted up with no rubbers and have never had a problem, and that's on a bike with an efe engine with no rubber mounts. I think stainless will probably have different properties than alloy when it comes to transmitting vibration but this will have to be explained by someone that knows what they are on about, and that's not me

Edited March 2, 2018 by Dezza

[zedhead]

The important bit is to have bars between the 'ears' on the cooler, as 370 Steve has on his, but Nick doesn't. Some people have managed without them, but I've been reliably informed by a number of folk in the fluid transfer / cooling industry that the coolers are designed to be supported in this fashion. And who am I to argue with them!

I've always fitted coolers with them, and had zero issues with leaks or splitting, and the coolers have variously been solid or rubber-mounted.

[dupersunc]

Cable ties ftmfw.

[Dezza]

36 minutes ago, zedhead said:

The important bit is to have bars between the 'ears' on the cooler, as 370 Steve has on his, but Nick doesn't. Some people have managed without them, but I've been reliably informed by a number of folk in the fluid transfer / cooling industry that the coolers are designed to be supported in this fashion. And who am I to argue with them!

I've always fitted coolers with them, and had zero issues with leaks or splitting, and the coolers have variously been solid or rubber-mounted.

Yep, also use a support under the cooler and a bit of M6 alloy tube between each of the upper and lower mounting holes. Just having a top support is probably asking for trouble.

[Blubber]

 

top bracket fixed solid on frame, cooler fixed on top bracket between rubbers ( not on picture )

lower bracket floating on frame hooks in rubbers

bars between the ears , bars also have rubbers

 

 

 

[CockneyRick]

Why take the risk for the sake of a few rubber washer/grommets?

[bluedog59]

I take the view that the factories don't rubber mount their coolers for the fun of it so I follow suit. I do however agree with the comment about spacers between the "ears", if you only mount the cooler at the top and don't have spacers then I think that any vibration at the bottom of the cooler will stress the top ( where the core meets the top ) and maybe cause problems. 

[clivegto]

I had no bars between the ears on my NWS slabby & it blew 2 oil coolers in quick succession. Fitted bandit cooler rubber mounts to the top bracket still on same oil cooler 4000 miles later.

[Nick]

23 hours ago, zedhead said:

The important bit is to have bars between the 'ears' on the cooler, as 370 Steve has on his, but Nick doesn't. Some people have managed without them, but I've been reliably informed by a number of folk in the fluid transfer / cooling industry that the coolers are designed to be supported in this fashion. And who am I to argue with them!

I've always fitted coolers with them, and had zero issues with leaks or splitting, and the coolers have variously been solid or rubber-mounted.

Ok, are people using hollow tubing with an internal thread, or just simply using it to 'space' out the ears by sliding it over the bolts?  Cant seem to find threaded tubing easily?

I have another cooler to mount on my other bike and may as well do it properly, and retrofit the bars to the one in the pic.

Thanks

[zedhead]

I've used both options - hollow tubing and threaded bar all the way through,, and internals threads. I prefer to use threaded bar with short bolts at each end as it's a bit neater-looking (no bare thread outside of nuts). I've had to get lengths of aluminium bar bored out to suit by a mate with a lathe, and then cut the thread myself ;-)

[MeanBean49]

Peraonally i have mine solid mounted, my big cooler has a bracket top and bottom with no support between the ears, and my smaller one is just mounted by the top mounts again with no support between the ears. Not been a problem for 5 years of quite heavy use.

The only time ive ever had an issue was when i ran a big 19 row on my bandit and to save money i only bought a top bracket and fixed it only to the top ears. It cracked and pissed oil everywhere. I guess its the vibration and flex with it being a big heavier cooler, whereas the small head cooler i have is probably not heavy/moving enough to matter.