97 heater core swap

[sixleggedinsect]

i had asked for advice on switching out my leaky heater core a few months ago. i finally got around to it last week and thought i'd post a few bits of info for folks searching for advice in the future-

one of my big worries had been the steering wheel removal. i did not want to buy a puller. it turns out, as i had hoped, that you do not need to remove the steering wheel. dropping it a ways (prop it up on the driver's seat, pulled forward) gives you plenty of room to maneuver the dashboard off the car. the one downside of this is the black plastic plate on the underside of the steering wheel (covers the ignition, etc) needs to come off. that isnt supposed to be done with the wheel still attached, so you basically have to force it. hard. and to get it back on you back to whack it pretty hard to jam the plastic flange back between the wheel and column.

the entire job took me around 7, maybe 8 hours. the chilton's/haynes guides were interesting, but far from excellent. the honest truth is that there are so many bolts and wires and panel clips that the guides dont get into it. basically, you unbolt whatever looks like its on top. then wiggle it. if it wont come out, find another bolt and take that out too. pull it off carefully, disconnect any wires in the back, and continue.

there were almost a hundred fasteners of various shapes and sizes, and i found it amazingly helpful to jam them into a piece of scrap paper and write down where they came from as i did the job. putting the car back together afterwards was a relative breeze.

when you are figuring out just what needs to come out- remember you are pulling off the entire dashboard. the dashboard is fastened to a heavy metal armature (big steel pipe running horizontal) which is bolted onto the car in four locations (with several bolts each). so if you find yourself removing little screws that attach the dash to metal things inside, you are trying to remove the dashboard from its armature and are wasting your time.

you also dont need to drain the radiator. just be quick to cover the firewall hoses with your thumb while at work, and pop some kind of plug in them. i dont think i lost more than a cup of fluid. incidentally, accessing the firewall hoses from squatting on top of the engine block was the most difficult (and by far the most painful) part of the process. perhaps a lift would make this part pretty easy.

tools needed: clotheshanger for radio removal. socket and wrench set. screwdrivers. maybe a small torx bit. and that's it!

as everyone says- it is a complex job. you have to remove a dozen body panel parts just to access the rest of the things you need to remove, plus all the instrument cluster/radio/PCM/cig lighter/pass airbag/glovebox/etc components, and unhook a dozen hidden and intricate wiring harnesses. then you have to haul the dash over the wheel and onto your lap while sitting in the passenger seat. and *then* you can remove the heater, and only *then* can you pull the core out of it. but it works.

thanks for the help along the way, folks.
anthony anagnostou

[denisond3]

Thanks for the follow-up feedback. Your description was great. I have replaced the heater core on a few of my cars (over the last 40 years), and I am not looking forward to the next one either. I wonder how many screws/nuts/bolts you had left over?

[sixleggedinsect]

Originally Posted by denisond3

Thanks for the follow-up feedback. Your description was great. I have replaced the heater core on a few of my cars (over the last 40 years), and I am not looking forward to the next one either. I wonder how many screws/nuts/bolts you had left over?

none (pats self on back). by retentively cataloguing all the little bits when i removed them everything got put back together without a hitch. the only thing i forgot was to hook back up the climate temp control, but i figured that out pretty quickly and didnt need to dissasemble anything to pop it back together (thank goodness)

altogether very satisifying, given the carnage halfway through the job. its hard to look at a garage laid out with car parts and really believe its all going to go back together properly.