Heater Core replacement? What else?

[pyroman]

Sorry guys I don't mean to spam stangnet but I keep running into issues. Next up: Heater Core

Took the car for its first drive around the block today. At this point I noticed coolant dribbling out of the heater box. I'm pretty sure its blown because I used a regular pipe fitting coming off the intake instead of the restrictor Thus I think I had too high a pressure through the core and caused the leak.

So it looks like I'm gonna have to go ahead and replace it. While I'm in there what else should I go ahead and replace? I think the blower motor is on its way out because it grinds alot. Any kind of list of stuff I will need/should replace would be great

I found a pretty good writeup online here Heater Core Installation for 65/66 Mustangs - FordMuscle.com Forums about replacing the core, but I have a 67 with deluxe interior, will I have to take the dash out? In the writeup they don't appear to need to.

Thanks again

 

[suki243]

You don't have to take the dash out, if you have an Ac it'll be a little trickier, i haven't done that. But to take it out is the easy part, putting it back in is the hard part, even with a second hand. The problem is lining up those four bolts in the holes while holding it.

Things you might want to replace while you're under there are the duct hoses they get old and rip as time goes on, as well as the heater control cables, if they're bad. Replace the seals, and clean out the box, while you're at it. If the motor grinds, see if you can fix it, sometimes its just an off /loose cage wheel fan or w.e. they call it. If not replace that.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

I have to do this with my '68 and it has original in-dash A/C with the fun-size amount of cables, hoses, and actuators. I'll take a look in the factory service manual today and see if I can offer any suggestions.

 

[JonK]

It's not that hard to get the nonA/C one out, I removed the glove box just to free up some space for my hands/tools. You might want to take as good a look as you can at the heater plenum, it's basically thick cardboard and if it got wet with A/F it'll probably just crumble when you remove it or it may just from 40+yrs. of use. They're not that expensive but I can't vouch for repop quality either:
Mustangs Unlimited - The Premier Source for Mustang, Shelby and Cougar Parts and Accessories
I repaired mine to last another year as i plan to install an aftermarket A/C system by then. Take a look under your carpet to see that the insulation isn't soaked since it leaked.
I can take any pics of the parts I removed and the open space if you like, I haven't reinstalled yet on my '67.
Jon

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Since pyro hasn't been back yet, I looked at his cardomain page and it's definitely in-dash A/C.

I looked in the manual and it actually doesn't have a very good illustration of the A/C-specific heater box. Looking in my car, it appears that it may be possible to remove the bottom of the box and not disconnect the evaporator lines, but would likely be a huge PITA with high risk of damaging the clip rails.

 

[pyroman]

It's not that hard to get the nonA/C one out, I removed the glove box just to free up some space for my hands/tools. You might want to take as good a look as you can at the heater plenum, it's basically thick cardboard and if it got wet with A/F it'll probably just crumble when you remove it or it may just from 40+yrs. of use. They're not that expensive but I can't vouch for repop quality either:
Mustangs Unlimited - The Premier Source for Mustang, Shelby and Cougar Parts and Accessories
I repaired mine to last another year as i plan to install an aftermarket A/C system by then. Take a look under your carpet to see that the insulation isn't soaked since it leaked.
I can take any pics of the parts I removed and the open space if you like, I haven't reinstalled yet on my '67.
Jon

Since pyro hasn't been back yet, I looked at his cardomain page and it's definitely in-dash A/C.

I looked in the manual and it actually doesn't have a very good illustration of the A/C-specific heater box. Looking in my car, it appears that it may be possible to remove the bottom of the box and not disconnect the evaporator lines, but would likely be a huge PITA with high risk of damaging the clip rails.

Luckily I have already ripped the carpet out of the car so I don't have to worry about the AF ruining the carpet.

Yes the car did have A/C but those pictures are really old. Since, I've put a new motor in there and removed all the A/C lines, compressor, condenser, etc from the car. Will this make it easier?

I don't plan on using A/C in this car anytime soon, but I may want to add in a system at some point later down the road. Do I have to do anything else special to delete the A/C from this car? I probably won't do a factory setup so I could use a smaller more efficient compressor etc. Should I go ahead and order parts like the plenum for an A/C car?

 

[pyroman]

Well I got the whole damn thing out. Took me about 3 hours. Sad thing is it was being held in by essentially 2 fasteners. Good thing I had my a/c lines off so i could actually remove the entire box. For those of us with a/c I found this writeup helpful:

http://www.67classicmustang.com/howto/heatercore.pdf

Some of the steps are a bit unclear as to the exact location he is talking about. After what I just went through I'll clarify for those who may have to do this at some point.

-First off heater casing is synomous with heater box.

The steps:
2. This is nut is on the firewall at the very top left (top left when looking at the front of the car). It is very near the hood hinge. It took me the longest time to find it because at the angle I was standing it was being obscured by the hinge.

4. This was pretty straight forward. The screw is a large sheet metal screw about 2-3inches long screwed in vertically. Also this is located inside the car and is best seen when you remove the glovebox liner.

5. I'm not sure what he is talking about here. There was a nut (like that in step 2) located in the middle of the firewall that was apparently attached to the blower motor. I was able to remove the heater box without the need to take off this nut, although I did anyway because I was perplexed at the time.

Essentially those two fasteners are the only things holding the box in place.

6. If you actually want to remove the box from the car you'll have to remove the AC lines. After those are cleared out of the way I unscrewed 6 small sheet metal screws that were holding the metal brackets surrounding the AC lines and the heater hose lines on the passenger's side of the firewall. This makes it so much easier to pull the AC fittings through the car. The sheet metal was kind of gunked on there with some tar like stuff so I had to pry it off, althought that wasn't difficult. There was also a rubber...sheet of sorts that was behind the the sheet metal plates. Once all that was removed there is a big hole in the firewall to make things easier to slide out.

So far I have only removed the entire thing from the car, I have yet to pull out the core and what not. The steps given in that link were to remove the core with the box still inside the car. But if you are alright with undoing the a/c lines I'd say doing it with the box out will be so much easier.

That's all I have for a writeup right now now I have some questions


Like I said in my previous post, I have no intent to run factory AC right now.

1. Can I just replace what I need to with the box that I have now and not hook up any AC lines and be ok?

2. If I were to go with a non-AC factory setup would I need to replace everything? i.e. Plenum, Box, everything in Box, Blower motor. Or what would I need to replace? Is it worth it?

3. If I plan to add AC later, but with an aftermarket AC system, how should I proceed?

Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to buy the wrong parts.

Thanks.

 

[pyroman]

Ok could some clarify something for me. What is the difference between in-dash and under-dash AC? I think I have in dash but I'm not sure...

 

[hminus]

Message for Pyroman

I have the same setup as you regarding the heat and ac removal. I removed mine yesterday and found a lone wire coming through the firewall where the ac evaporator and heater core tubes were. This lone wire was attached to something, as the end was stripped off, but I can not figure where it went. I followed the wire way back to the drivers side of the car on the engine side of the firewall. It then went into the firewall on the drivers side.

Does anyone know what this wire attached to... It only had about 12 inches of length from the hole to attach to something....

Larry --- 1968 coupe 289V8

 

[2+2GT]

Ok could some clarify something for me. What is the difference between in-dash and under-dash AC? I think I have in dash but I'm not sure...

Under dash: