EJ Adapter – JIC Female 74° Seat to JIC Male 74° Cone Branch Tee Hydraulic Adapter (SAE J514)

The EJ adapter is a branch tee hydraulic adapter that carries two JIC female 74° seat ports, marked E and G on the run, and one JIC male 74° cone port marked F on the branch, so a line can be split or combined through a tee while the sealing gender changes between the run and the branch. The run presents internal 74° seats, the branch presents an external 74° cone, and both sides seal metal-to-metal on that cone face under SAE J514. Its purpose is to give a circuit one tee body that accepts male cone tube ends through female seat ports on the run and ports into a female cone seat through a male cone stud end on the branch.

Every port must match its mating seat exactly in thread form, thread size and cone angle, because that match is the precondition for eliminating leakage at the conversion point. An EJ adapter that starts on the mating thread but carries the wrong cone angle will seat on the wrong line of contact and weep under pressure.

Sealing principle of this series: a 74° cone joint seals metal-to-metal on the wide 74° cone face, with the nut drawing the cone into the matching seat. This series does not seal on a 37° flare, on an O-ring face, on a dryseal taper thread or on a four-bolt flange.

Ventajas principales

• Two JIC female 74° seat ports on the run and one JIC male 74° cone port on the branch, so both genders of the same cone family are available at one junction.
• Metal-to-metal 74° cone seating at every port, so no elastomer is needed to hold system pressure at the joint.
• Eight printed rows from EJ-04 to EJ-24, covering 7/16″X20 through 1.7/8″X12 in one size progression.
• Carbon steel with trivalent chromium zinc plating, or 304 / 316 stainless steel for corrosive and offshore service.
• Nut and sleeve for the run tube ends are ordered separately against the printed NB200, NB300 and NB500 references.

1. What an EJ Adapter Does

An EJ adapter joins three JIC 74° cone connections in one body: the E and G ports at the two ends of the horizontal run, and the F port on the vertical branch. The run ports are female cone seats, and the branch port is a male cone stud end. Flow entering the run is divided between the opposite run port and the branch port, and flow entering the branch is divided between the two run ports, in either direction and without a preferred flow path.

The geometry matters as much as the thread. A branch tee carries its main flow path straight through the body along one axis, and the branch leaves that axis at 90°. The through ports are the run ports, E and G. The perpendicular port is the branch port, F. On this series the run is the female seat side and the branch is the male cone side, which is the opposite arrangement of the run tee variant of the same family.

The gender arrangement is the reason this series exists. A circuit that already uses JIC 74° cone tube ends needs seats on the through line and a stud end at the branch, and a single tee that provides both removes a coupling from the assembly. Fewer joints mean fewer potential leak paths, less wrench clearance needed around the junction and a shorter installed envelope.

2. EJ Specifications

The three ports are presented below as two mirrored blocks: one for the run ends E and G, one for the branch end F. Read the run block first, then the branch block, then confirm both against the mating ports on the equipment.

2.1 Connection 1 – JIC female 74° seat, E and G ports on the run

• Thread standard and family: SAE J514 hydraulic tube fitting, SAE 74° seat / flareless cone family.
• Thread size range available at E and G: 7/16″X20 through 1.7/8″X12, in the steps printed in table 2.5.
• Gender: female, with an internal 74° seat machined inside each run port.
• Sealing method: metal-to-metal contact between the internal seat and the external 74° cone of the mating male stud end or tube end, drawn in by the mating nut.
• Mating connection standard: a JIC male 74° cone stud end or tube end of the same thread size, per SAE J514.

2.2 Connection 2 – JIC male 74° cone, F port on the branch

• Thread standard and family: SAE J514, same 74° cone family as the run ports.
• Thread size range available at F: the same eight steps as connection 1, from 7/16″X20 to 1.7/8″X12.
• Gender: male, with an external 74° cone at the branch end.
• Sealing method: metal-to-metal contact between the external 74° cone and the internal 74° seat of the mating port or hose end.
• Mating connection standard: a JIC female 74° seat port or hose end of the same thread size, per SAE J514.

Each printed row therefore applies one size code to all three ports, so an EJ-08 tee takes 3/4″X16 cone threads at both run seats and at the branch cone.

2.3 Construction and Materials

The body is machined from bar stock on CNC lathes as a tee, then drilled on the run axis and the branch axis, bored and seated with the internal 74° seat at both run ports, turned with the external cone at the branch, and threaded at all three ports.

• Body material: carbon steel as standard; 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel or brass on request.
• Plating: trivalent chromium zinc plating (Cr3+) for carbon steel as standard; zinc-nickel plating available. Plating thickness and corrosion performance are confirmed per order rather than published as a series figure.
• Seal material: the metal cone joint carries no elastomer. Where the same circuit uses O-ring sealed components, NBR, FKM (Viton-type) and EPDM are the available seal material options and are matched to the fluid and temperature of the system.
• Hex features: two hexes measured as S1 and S2 in table 2.5, used to hold the body while the run and branch joints are made up.

2.4 Pressure and Temperature

Working pressure for an EJ adapter is not set by the series code. It is governed by the thread size, the wall thickness of the tee body, the sealing method and the material selected, and it is limited by the mating cone joints at the three ports. Working pressure for these sizes is confirmed per order by HENGHUA engineering, based on the thread size, sealing method and material selected.

On the temperature side, a metal-to-metal cone joint follows the body material rather than an elastomer. Published material ranges of the elastomers used elsewhere in the same hydraulic circuit are approximately -30°C to +100°C for NBR, -20°C to +200°C for FKM (Viton-type) and -40°C to +120°C for EPDM.

2.5 Part Number and Dimension Table

The table below is the complete printed size range of the EJ series. All dimensions are in millimetres. Columns E, F and G are threads; columns A, C, B, S1 and S2 are dimensions.

Ordering note printed with this table: nut and sleeve should be ordered separately. The nut NB200 and sleeve NB500 is suitable for metric tube, the nut NB200 and sleeve NB300 is suitable for inch tube.

What each column means

• N.º DE PIEZA. – the HENGHUA part number. The prefix EJ marks the branch tee adapter body of the JIC female 74° seat / JIC male 74° cone family, and the number after the dash is the size code.
• E – the thread at the first run port, a JIC female 74° seat port. 7/16"X20 means a 7/16″ nominal JIC thread at 20 threads per inch per SAE J514.
• F – the thread at the branch port, a JIC male 74° cone stud end. It carries the same notation and the same nominal size as E in every row of this table.
• G – the thread at the second run port, the opposite end of the run from E, in the same notation.
• A,C – a common dimension in millimetres shared by the two run ports E and G, measured at the female 74° seat as marked on the series drawing. Both run seats are the same size, so one value covers the pair.
• B – the branch dimension in millimetres at the male 74° cone port F, measured on the branch as marked on the series drawing. B is larger than A and C because the male cone stud end is longer than the female seat depth.
• S1 – hex across flats in millimetres on the run body, the wrench size used to hold the tee while a run joint is made up.
• S2 – hex across flats in millimetres on the branch body, the wrench size used to hold the tee while the branch joint is made up.

Thread size and dash chart

The dash code is the size step. The JIC adapter size code follows the SAE dash system, where the code is the nominal tube outside diameter in sixteenths of an inch.

3. How to Read an EJ Part Number

An EJ part number has two elements: the family prefix and the size code.

The prefix EJ identifies the body as a JIC adapter body with a branch tee shape in the SAE J514 JIC 74° cone family, with female cone seats on the run and a male cone stud end on the branch. The letter sequence distinguishes the body type and gender arrangement within the American Adapters range, where the run tee version of the same gender pair carries a different prefix and the straight version is listed separately.

The size code is the JIC dash number. It is read as the nominal tube outside diameter in sixteenths of an inch, so 04 is 4/16″ or 1/4″, 08 is 8/16″ or 1/2″ and 12 is 12/16″ or 3/4″. The code is quoted with the thread designation in table 2.5 so there is no need to convert it by hand.

Worked example: EJ-08.

• EJ – branch tee body of the JIC female 74° seat / JIC male 74° cone family.
• 08 – size code 8, which is the 3/4″X16 JIC thread per SAE J514.
• From the table: E, F and G are all 3/4″X16, the run seat dimension A,C is 11 mm, the branch cone dimension B is 32 mm, S1 is 19 mm and S2 is 24 mm.

A buyer ordering EJ-08 therefore receives a branch tee with two 3/4″X16 female 74° seat ports on the run and one 3/4″X16 male 74° cone port on the branch, with a 19 mm hex on the run and a 24 mm hex on the branch. Where the catalogue prints only one size code for a tee, all three ports carry that size. If your drawing shows a suffix or a multi-code part number, quote the full number as printed.

4. Installation and Fitment

A 74° cone joint is made by drawing a cone into its seat until the two metal faces lock, so tightening is a feel-and-angle operation rather than a flat torque figure. HENGHUA does not publish a single torque figure for the series. Follow the equipment maker’s recommendation, or confirm the figure with HENGHUA per order.

Check the seat before you check the torque. The seal is the cone face itself, so a nick, a burr or a ring of debris inside a run seat will leak no matter how well the nut is tightened.

Start the run joints first. Bring the two run tube ends in hand-tight, because they set the position of the whole tee. Clock the branch to the direction the line needs, hold the run hex S1 and snug both run joints, then make up the branch joint while holding the branch hex S2.

Tube ends need the correct nut and sleeve. The nut and sleeve are separate items ordered against the printed references: NB200 nut with NB500 sleeve for metric tube, and NB200 nut with NB300 sleeve for inch tube. A mismatched sleeve will not draw the cone squarely into the seat.

Contamination and reuse. Cap all three ports in storage, because the cone faces and seats are the sealing surfaces and debris scores them. The body can be reused while the threads and seats are undamaged.

Common fitment errors and their symptoms:

• Mixing a 37° flare with a 74° cone. Symptom: the nut bottoms on the thread before the faces touch, and the joint weeps at low pressure.
• A cross-threaded nut started by hand at an angle. Symptom: a torn thread and a nut that will not seat, with metal particles in the circuit.
• Reusing a flared tube end that has been deformed. Symptom: a repeat weep at the same port after every re-tightening.

Six-step assembly

1. Confirm that all three mating connections are JIC 74° cone ports of the same thread size as the E, F and G columns.
2. Inspect the two run seats and the branch cone for nicks, burrs and debris, and check the threads with a gauge where available.
3. Clean the seats, the cone and the mating parts, and remove any old sealant or tape from the threads.
4. Fit the two run tube ends hand-tight with the correct nut and sleeve, set the branch direction and snug both run ports while holding the run hex.
5. Make up the branch joint, holding the branch hex.
6. Leak-check all three ports at system pressure, then re-check after the first thermal cycle and re-torque only if a weep appears.

5. Applications and Industries

Application tags for this series: hydraulic systems, water jetting, oil and gas, industrial equipment, construction machinery, agriculture, marine, material handling. A tee adapter of this type is specified by its three ports and its body geometry rather than by industry, so one part serves several sectors.

A third port on an existing cone line. When a circuit has to gain a pressure gauge, a return line or a pilot take-off, the EJ adapter is fitted into the existing JIC 74° cone connection as a branch tee adapter. The two run seats continue the original tube line and the branch serves the new function, without cutting a new port into the manifold.

Cross-standard equipment integration. Where a cone circuit works with a manifold that carries female cone ports, the male branch cone of this JIC adapter enters one of those ports directly, while the female run seats accept standard male cone tube ends. The part removes one coupling from the junction.

Repair and replacement. Maintenance crews keep the common size codes on the shelf as junction stock, because a damaged port on an existing tee can be recovered by replacing the tee body rather than reworking the line. The printed table makes the size match straightforward.

6. Replacement and Cross-Reference Guide

Cross-reference for this series is organised by standard and sealing method, never by brand. Two tee adapters interchange only if the thread form, the nominal size, the pitch, the gender at each port and the run or branch geometry all match.

An EJ adapter is a branch tee in the SAE J514 JIC 74° cone family, with female seat ports on the run and a male cone port on the branch. It is not interchangeable with a JIC 37° flared tee, which seals on a 37° flare face, nor with an ORFS tee, which seals a flat face against an elastomeric O-ring under SAE J1453. The JIC female seat tee without a male branch is a different body, and so is the run tee version of this family, in which the run and branch genders are reversed.

To identify the correct replacement, measure three things.

1. Thread. Measure the inside diameter and pitch of each female seat and the outside diameter and pitch of the male cone, then compare with the E, F and G columns.
2. Seat angle. Confirm that the cone angle is 74° and not 37° or 60°. A 74° cone is visibly wider than a 37° flare and will not seal in a 37° seat.
3. Run and branch geometry. Confirm which ports form the straight run and which port leaves at 90°, and record A, C and B so the replacement fits the same envelope. A branch tee cannot be replaced by a run tee of the same size.

Where the mating port is not a JIC cone, a cross standard adapter of the same size is the correct part rather than a forced thread. Record the measurements with the part number so HENGHUA can match a printed size code.

7. Ordering, Packaging and Delivery

To order, give the following information:

• Series code: EJ.
• Full part number, for example EJ-08, taken from table 2.5.
• The thread size required at all three ports, read from the E, F and G columns.
• The branch direction, so the tee is clocked correctly at assembly.
• Nut and sleeve requirement for the run tube ends, against the NB200, NB300 and NB500 references.
• Body material and plating: carbon steel with trivalent chromium zinc plating, zinc-nickel plating, or 304 or 316 stainless steel.
• Quantity, destination and the packing format required.

Packaging formats: bulk cartons for line-side consumption, small boxes for distributor shelves and labelled bags for service kits, each labelled with the part number, the thread sizes and the quantity. Sample orders and first-article parts are available for OEM programmes, including drawing-based manufacture of specials.

Lead time is confirmed per order and depends on size, material, plating and quantity. As a hydraulic adapter manufacturer and supplier, HENGHUA can quote the branch tee adapter, the matching nut and sleeve and the packing format as one supply.

8. FAQ

What is an EJ adapter used for?

An EJ adapter is a branch tee that joins three JIC 74° cone connections in one body. The E and G ports at the two ends of the run are female 74° seat ports, and the F port on the branch is a male 74° cone stud end. Use it where a line has to split or combine flow and where the through line has to accept male cone tube ends while the branch mates with a female cone seat per SAE J514.

What is the difference between JIC 37° flare and ORFS, and which should I use?

A JIC 37° flare joint seals metal-to-metal on a 37° conical flare face under SAE J514. An ORFS joint seals a flat face against an elastomeric O-ring under SAE J1453. Choose the family that matches the port already on the equipment, because the two are not interchangeable. This series belongs to neither family: it is a 74° cone joint of the same SAE J514 standard, sealing on the wide cone face.

Can NPT and BSPT be interchanged?

No. NPT is a 60° taper pipe thread under ANSI/ASME B1.20.1, and BSPT is a 55° taper pipe thread under ISO 7-1. The form, angle and pitch differ, so the two will not seal even when a few threads start by hand. This series carries no pipe thread at all, so a pipe-threaded device cannot be coupled to it without a cross standard adapter of the correct size.

How do I identify the correct size?

Measure the inside diameter and pitch of the mating male cone ends and the outside diameter and pitch of the mating female seat, then read across the E, F and G columns of table 2.5. When all three match a printed row, that row is the correct part number. Confirm the cone angle as well, because a 37° flare and a 74° cone look similar at a glance but belong to different seat families.

What seal material should I select for my fluid and temperature?

This part contains no elastomer, so the seal is the metal cone face at each port and there is no seal material to select for the tee itself. Where the same circuit uses O-ring sealed components, the published material ranges are approximately -30°C to +100°C for NBR, -20°C to +200°C for FKM (Viton-type) and -40°C to +120°C for EPDM.

How is the working pressure of this adapter determined?

Working pressure is not fixed by the series code. It is governed by the thread size, the wall thickness of the tee body, the sealing method and the material selected, and it is limited by the three mating cone joints. Working pressure for these sizes is confirmed per order by HENGHUA engineering, based on the thread size, sealing method and material selected.

What is the minimum order quantity and can I get samples?

Minimum order quantity depends on the size code, the material and the plating, so it is confirmed with the quotation rather than published as one series figure. Samples and validation parts are available for OEM and distributor evaluation, including specials made to a drawing.

Send your requirement to HENGHUA

Send the part number, the required thread size at all three ports, the branch direction, the nut and sleeve requirement, the material and plating, and the quantity. HENGHUA confirms the match to the printed table, the seat and cone dimensions and the delivery schedule, and quotes the EJ adapter that fits your circuit.

Related series in the same family: the CJ adapter (run tee) and the BJ adapter (branch tee). Browse the full Hydraulic Adapters range for the complete SAE J514 JIC, NPT, ORFS and ISO 6162 flange families.