[Tomb stone]

Well, I got it torn apart and back together. It took me two full days, two scraped and cut hands, a sunburn, and an aching back and shoulders. The most time-consuming part to remove was the A/C lines. For some reason, I couldn’t get the top one off to save my life. Took several hours of fiddling to get them off. Same thing happened putting it back on. The top one just didn’t want to snap on. The bottom line came off and on in a jiffy with no problems. I sure hope I didn’t mess up the evaporator with all the pulling and pushing.


Anyway, with a center console/shift SE model, it might have taken a little longer to get everything apart. The Haynes Manual does not mention having to remove the entire dash to get the heater box out, but I see no way to get it out without doing so. Like FUBARD said, I swung the dash over into the passenger seat and gained enough room to remove the heater box with ease. There was no way I was going to disconnect all those wiring harness from the drivers side and pull them through the firewall. Swinging it back and onto the passenger seat worked just fine.


I ops-checked everything before I got it too far back together. Good thing I did, I forgot to plug in the blend door motor’s power connector. Only cost me about 20 minuets to get it back apart though.

It’s all back together and ops-checks good with no leaks. All the vacuum and power door flaps work in the heater box, along with all the lights, radio, ect. Only thing left to do is recharge the A/C.

Just like any large job, I have one fastener that didn’t find a home. It’s a small 7mm screw that is unlike any of the others I took out. I remember taking it out from under the dash (all the other screws are 8mm). I just can’t find anything missing. Oh well, it can’t be that important. I’m sure my wife will find out when the dash falls in her lap after she speeds over those railroad tracks.