tool for joining oil cooler pipe sections

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'07 4.8i (N62). Recently had to replace an oil cooler line, #8:

The female connection on this line mates with a male connection on the line going down to the oil cooler thermostat on the block. There's an o-ring inside the female part, and the connection is secured with a sliding wire clip.


It was enormously difficult to get the fitting seated deeply enough that the wire clip would seat in the groove. I guess the new o-ring took quite a bit of force to compress. I greased the connection well, and had to use considerable force on a long prybar against the lip of the hose crimp to get it seated. Took me at least an hour with lots of swearing.


Is there any specialty tool which grips both pipes and squeezes them together? Or any other tips? Reason I ask is that I had to do a temporary fix on the old pipe while awaiting delivery of the new one, and I'm dreading having to do this again.

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Maybe something like this only bigger?

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Problem solved.

The problem was that the new o-ring inside the female coupling was very stiff, and was damaged upon installation. It was kinda sheared off by the male coupling. The trick was to pre-stretch the o-ring a bit to have a larger inner diameter and to grease it up good. It also helps to leave the wire clip in the closed position - it will stretch then snap into place with a click when properly seated.

I did buy the Lisle 37300 tool. It wasn't big enough to fit over the pipes properly, but I was able to get enough of it seated that it worked.