Trans cooler... tow lights..... door lock actuator

All in one day.
This weekend I'm planning on getting up early and doing all three of these jobs. The trans cooler I see the most trouble with. I picked up a standard duty one from U-haul this week. The idea is to cut the return tube right under the radiator and plumb the new cooler in. I've read that the Windstar's line are 5/16. Well, the U-Haul tube is 11/32. Think a hose clamp will be able to seal it off?
The tow light harness seems pretty easy. Running the heavy wire from front to back to power the black box will proably take the longest.
I did the driver's side door lock actuator a couple of months ago. Bought an OE style from Autozone rather than dealing with one from eBay. Will do the same for the passenger side. Proably take about 30 minutes now that I know what I'm doing.

There is at least 1/32 tolerance in the diameter of rubber hose - so marrying those two connection together should be no problem.

You may want to dry fit the transmission cooler to determine if you can place it where you want without removing the front bumper cover.

When I recently did mine - where I wanted to place the cooler required that I lower the bumper cover. Not a bad job in itself - but almost every fender well and lower screw was rusted to the speed nut on the backside. I had to use a die grinder to grind off the screw heads - and of course a trip to Lowes to buy the replacement hardware. This added a couple hours to an otherwise straight forward job.

The plumbing is as you suggest.

Good Luck-
Glenn

For the trailer lighting, my '96 is pretty normal.
Newer windstars (1999 and newer) may have a Rear Electronics Module (REM) and there have been posts (do a search) on trailer lighting not being a direct hook up......a adaptor box being needed.
Perhaps someone with experience with trailer lighting on newer windstars will chime in.

When I installed my transmission cooler.....I installed it on the front of the evaporator coils above the front bumper.....
This was to reduce stone hits.
I used the hoses on the driver's side.....between the transmission and the bottom of the radiator assembly.
I have the fluid flow out of the transmission.....into the radiator cooler......then through the auxillary cooler....and back into the transmission.

I would recommend that you check for low speed radiator fan operation.....with the engine at idle......in Park......select a A/C setting.......to have the A/C ON.
Then check to see that the radiator fans come on.....and STAY on.
If they do not stay on......you may have a broken low speed fan dropping resistor for the radiator fans.
This resistor is mounted on top of the front, inner bumper.......
You can see the resistor by looking down behind the passenger side headlight....
Here is a link to a picture of it on my '96

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2458774470011220610ybouky

In stop and go traffic in hot weather.....I keep my A/C ON....which keeps the radiator fans running at low speed when the vehicle is stopped or moving slowly.....which keeps the transmission MUCH cooler.....as well as keeping the engine cooler.

If I feel the hose won't seal, I can always use adapters. I think Autozone rents flare tools as well.
I got the tow light harness from Valley. Made just for the neg-side switching 'Stars. That's why I have to run a power cable directly from the battery to the converter, which also handles the 3-2 light conversion.

I'll check on the fans, thanks.

I have a B&M cooler which I want to put on also, so let me know how it goes for you I'll appreciate it.
Will you be using those nylon bolts that come with the kit to mount the cooler? If so, I noticed that there is a gap between the radiator and a/c condenser don't know if that would be a problem with vibration. Also, the return tube (metal part) curves towards the tranny, Will you be attaching the cooler's line to the rubber or metal? Again, let me know how it goes for you, Good luck.

I forgot to mention in the first post that this was all going into an '01.
Install went fine. Here in Mesa, it's roasting by noon, so I rolled my butt out to the garage at 7AM to get started.
The cooler install came out good, IMO. I mounted it dead center in front of the AC condensor, about 2 inches from the top. For access, I removed the 4 or 5 expanding plug things and removed the radiator cover. Since there's only about an inch gap between the radiator and condensor, I couldn't mount it any lower and still get my fingers in there to put the platic "nuts" on. I was also only able to use the top mount points for the same reason. I did however put the foam tape on all 4 corners.
It was installed fittings down and the hose routed in between the condensor and power steering cooler, through two 1-1/4" holes I drilled in the lower bumper cover (the black part), equidistant from center.
The lower hose is the return from the radiator (I hope, j/k, verified with an infrared temp gun after letting the car run for about 20 seconds in drive), so I moved what I believe is the AC pressure switch out of the way and used my tubing cutter to cut the metal line about 6 inches or so in from where it meets the hose on the tranny end, and roughly the same distance from the fitting on the radiator. The hose was a *perfect* fit on the fluid line, so no worries there. 3/8" diameter if anyone's wondering. All in all, I took out a bit over a foot of metal tube. Once the hose was connected to each end, I used zip ties to hold it up out of the way, replaced the pressure switch and re-attached the radiator cover.
It took me about an hour and a half to do the cooler install. The majority of this time was just trying to figure out how to do it, since there's no one, correct way.

The trailer light converter install went good too. It's all plug and play except for drilling one hole for the ground wire. The directions say to run the wire from left to right under the bumper facia, so basically you can seeing the wires entering the taillight housings every time the hatch was open. Didn't want that, so I cut it in half and was able to find gaps in the shelf below the cavity to route the wire under the car to the other side. I just used a butt connector to put it back together.
There wasn't anything mentioned about how to route the trailer portion of the harness, so I routed it out the outside of the right housing and under the bumper cover to under the car to the receiver. Then I had to route the power cable to the front of the car. This is probably the hardest part of the whole job, as you scoot along on your back, from the right side to left then all the way to the front, putting zip ties in every foot or two. I must've used 30 zip ties total with all the wiring. Got a good back rub though.
I also ran out of wire about 15 inches from the battery. I had to go buy more 12ga to finish it up.
Total time for this install was about 2 hours. The instruction sheet that comes with the kit says 30 minutes. Yea, right.
By the time I was done it was in the 90's and any metal tool left in the sun caused a burn if picked up, so I left the door lock actuator install for another day.

I'll have pics of the cooler install later today (it's 3:20 AM as I write this).

Install pics.
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1561/cooler01.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/4738/cooler02.jpg
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4968/cooler03.jpg
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2471/cooler04.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3941/cooler05.jpg
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5564/cooler06.jpg

My hat off to you, that is a nice setup.

Notes from this weekend's trip up to the mountains of Payson, AZ
It doesn't accelerate quickly.
It doesn't stop quickly.
It doesn't handle well.
It doesn't even come close to doing the speed limit up a hill.
It may not last as long.

Don't treat it like you would normally. If it takes a while to get to 65mph, then let it take a while. Don't force it or try to get there quicker. You'll just heat up the transmission fluid. I learned that this weekend. I was trying to maintain 55 up 4-6% grades. After a while, I could smell the fluid. Fluid that I had changed 50 miles earlier. It stinks.
On the way back, I let the car tell me how fast it wanted to go up hill. It turned out I could keep it in 3rd most of the time at around 45. It would occasionally DS to 2nd, and I'd let it get down to 40 to relieve some stress. 2nd gear at 55 sound like it's gonna blow.
On the flats, OD on, it would cruise at 70.
BTW: Keep it out of overdrive if there are hills. If not, you'll notice the RPM change when the torque converter unlocks. At that point, you're heating up the fluid. If it's mostly flat, you can use it, but try not to lock and unlock the converter over and over. Keep steady pressure on the gas, and let the speed fluctuate. If it keeps unlocking, then just take it out of O/D. Pushing it hard in 3rd or even 2nd can cause slipping.
I had to add half a quart of fluid on the way up, and the other half when we left. Not sure it it was an air bubble after changing the fluid, like a bubble in the cooler or something. I changed it by pumping it out my new cooler return connection until it slowed/stopped, added 4 quarts of new fluid, repeat 3-4 times until it was pumping red. I checked it again late yesterday after we had been home for a few hours, and after driving it around town for a bit, no trailer, and it was fine.
I do have a small leak somewhere though, but not where I put the cooler. It's on the driver's side, maybe right around the axle. I'll check it out this weekend. I noticed 2 spots on the drive, about 7 inches apart, one slightly larger than the other, but not bigger than 2 inches.