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[spike]

ok guys here it is. the dreaded heater core tetorial NOTE: this is for cars without A/C!

while you let the coolant drain you can tear into the interior.
i started with taking the kick panel off. after thats off you can take out the two 7/16 bolts (top one holds the bottom of the dash in and the bottom one has the ground wire for the blower motor)


this nut has to be takin off i bielive its 7/16 but mine came off with my fingers as i never tightend it


gotta take the dash bezel off to get at some hiddin bolts


after thats off theres a 5/16 bolt above the ashtray


theres two or three screws that hold the rightside of the drivers bottom half on, take them out and then remove the mirror remote.


pull the three 5/16 bolts out of the bottom of the dash under the glove box


theres two philips screws under the dash at about the middle that hold the two halfs together, as you can see i use one screw as a ground


i pulled the glove box out for better access to the wires


gotta pull both these bolts out. the black one holds the top of the dash on and the silver one holds the bottom half


gotta pull the whole top of the dash off. theres four 5/16 bolts along the windshield in the defrost vents, a 5/16 bolt by the headlight switch, and a 5/16 bolt by the radio

[Dippy.org]

[spike]

after the top half is off, there is two 5/16 bolts in the top of the vents, these are the last two bolts and the bottom half will come off (i had to move mine to the side cuz of the wires that go into my ashtray)


after the bottom is off you can start disconnecting vacumm hoses (i mainly took these pics so i can remember what color goes where )
this pic you can see there was a valve of some sort here, theres two wires goin to it so i had to remove it to remove the heater box, again, two 5/16 bolts




also found the mouse nest, the brace has to be takin off also, you can just remove the top nut (7/16)


this brace also has to come off. two 3/8 nuts


there is four studs that go through the firewall with 7/16 nuts, a deep socket is required. theres 1 behind the wash bottle, 1 by the exhaust manifold, 1 by the voltage regulator, and 1 by the heater hose.

after those are off the heater box can be removed from the car, look at all the room, i was thinkin of leavin it out lol


here is the top of the heater box, its hard to see but i dotted the heads of all 19 5/16 bolts so you can see where they are located


then you gotta remove this dealy thing that controls the door inside


and under that is this washer that has to come off


heres the only pic i took with the top off (thought i had another one but i guess i forgot). here it is with the heater core out and i did myself a favor and removed the a/c core thing


to remove the heater core from the box theres just one 5/16 bolt that holds it on and it just slides out


then i got pissed, the new heater core didnt fit, but luckily mine wasnt shot (coolant was leaking from the hoses and inside the car :doh

[spike]

and to install you just work backwards to what you did. i hope this helps

[Ice Cold]

Never had to do one [knocks on wood. ]
It really doesn't look like a fun job.

[spike]

it wasnt that fun of a job, esspecially since mine was fine the whole time, but i guess it wasnt that bad since i already knew where everything was since i had the entire dash out after i got it to switch it to the white one

[Reggie]

Great pics Spike!   You mean to tell me that after all of that work - that sucker wouldn't fit in there??  It does look like it's wider....  - RR

[spike]

yup the core itself was too big and the tubes were to tall


i was puttin it back together today and that was more of a [Edited by Farley's] puttin it in then it was takin it out. and the thing where all the vacumm hoses go into started breakin apart on me so im siliconin it back together,,,, in other words, i aint doin this again

[CTDMike]

Great pics...the heater cores are not fun in our cars. Same goes for Ram truck, new & old style & even old style stuff (my '71 Charger springs to mind...I popped the core in it  )
Changing out the core itself is simple, hard part is getting the whole heater box assembly out & all the maneuvering, vacuum hoses.

[spike]

it actually wasnt bad taking the heater box out, its just putting the heater box back in thats the hard part. cuz you gotta run vacuum hoses and wireing behind it kinda, then you gotta try lineing up the 4 studs, the heater core tubes, and the drain deal blindly since you cant exactly see behind the heater box to line it all up with the holes in the firewall

[Reggie]

it actually wasnt bad taking the heater box out, its just putting the heater box back in thats the hard part. cuz you gotta run vacuum hoses and wireing behind it kinda, then you gotta try lineing up the 4 studs, the heater core tubes, and the drain deal blindly since you cant exactly see behind the heater box to line it all up with the holes in the firewall

You could tie a nylon string to each bolt and feed the string through each bolt hole.  It would be better with a buddy to help line it up. - RR

[Reggie]

yup the core itself was too big and the tubes were to tall

What was the part number on the box?  I wonder if they gave you the wrong part or are they selling the wrong cores as the correct replacement parts...??  - RR

[spike]

not sure i was so pissed at that point for doin all that work and finding out it was fine and then that it didnt fit i just put it back in the box and threw it in the dart to return.

[Zach]

I know this is a old post and topic,  but I just used this tutorial and it took me all of 45 minutes to get everything out.. You hit the head of the nail square on    you were even right down to the number of bolts            This deserves to be in the library if it isn't already

[Reggie]

I know this is a old post and topic,  but I just used this tutorial and it took me all of 45 minutes to get everything out.. You hit the head of the nail square on    you were even right down to the number of bolts            This deserves to be in the library if it isn't already

Yeah, I know.  Excellent thread posted by Spike.   I've been dragging my feet of late.    - RR

[spike]

glad it helped

now start liftin your feet reggie n update the library