"The female portion allows some extra wiggle for easier alignment to the threads but you should always get your tubing a straight in alignment, as you can, to any connecting fitting.
These are angled fittings, not ball joint fittings. (:-)"

I like your sense of humor. And now I understand the term "swivel" as it applies to these fittings.

Besides these lines are connected to a plastic radiator tank."

That brings me to a frequently dispersed myth about the cooler in the plastic radiator tank. The myth is advice to use the large thin nut on the male fitting as a counter hold when tightening or breaking loose the line fittings. These pictures should dispel that notion.







Now the cooler is made from very thin brass, so care still needs to be exercised when "torquing" the line nut, but as a large diameter tube, is very strong.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

"A harmonica plays better too, once you learn to keep the slobber out!" -machine man