72 Heater Core Removal

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pastortom1

pastortom1

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Is there a site available (or a download, or series of pics) that illustrates the removal of a 1972 heater core? (Demon/Dart/Duster)...........

This would be MUCH easier if someone has a link, or has access to a series of pictures or illustrations. The blower box assembly is just plain miserable on these......you can't see much to get you started.

Help quick if you can...................
 
they suck monkey %$A&# a huge pain an yur back is gonna die!im gonna rip mine out the redneck wat with my hands next time
 
Ain't those early Mopar underdash designers just a sweet bunch?

This car is grounded until I get some clear directions, or go ahead and break something...............
 
You guys who are crying about a heater core swap in our old Mopars have obviously never done one in a modern car. I spent 12 hours doing the one in my girlfriend's Jeep Cherokee last year. I did my Scamp in about 2 hours including a coffee and smoke break along with cleaning up the heater box once it was out. Listen closely. Step 1: Drain coolant. Step 2: remove heater hoses. Step 3: remove 4 bolts from around the heater blower motor. Step 4: look beside the passenger kickpanel and straight up for the nut on the support rod that goes up inside the cowl vent and remove it. (this rod is a lot like a battery hold down rod with a hook on top that simply hooks into the vent to hold the heater box up). Step 5: wiggle the heater box backward (towards the seats and down until it drops to the floor. Be careful here as there is coolant in that old heater core that can ruin your carpet's day. Step 6: Remove control cables and unplug the resistor and disconnect the defroster hoses. Step 7: Take heater box out of the car and lay it on the ground. Step 8: Take a coffee break. Then all that's left to do is disassemble the heater box. It is held together with spring clips and once they're removed the two halves separate quite easily. The heater core is held into the housing with a few screws. Now you're home free. Good luck, and get your butt up under that dash and get it done!!
 
I took the time to take out my pass side bucket so I could lay flat. No more neck ache. I had more stuff to do under the dash though.
 
i am thinking about pluging the holes im my waterpump and intake and just doing away with the heater core
 
I unhook the heater hoses from the intake/pump and blow compressed air through them. That way you don't have to worry about antifreeze on the carpet.
 
unreformed66 said:
You guys who are crying about a heater core swap in our old Mopars have obviously never done one in a modern car. I spent 12 hours doing the one in my girlfriend's Jeep Cherokee last year. I did my Scamp in about 2 hours including a coffee and smoke break along with cleaning up the heater box once it was out. Listen closely. Step 1: Drain coolant. Step 2: remove heater hoses. Step 3: remove 4 bolts from around the heater blower motor. Step 4: look beside the passenger kickpanel and straight up for the nut on the support rod that goes up inside the cowl vent and remove it. (this rod is a lot like a battery hold down rod with a hook on top that simply hooks into the vent to hold the heater box up). Step 5: wiggle the heater box backward (towards the seats and down until it drops to the floor. Be careful here as there is coolant in that old heater core that can ruin your carpet's day. Step 6: Remove control cables and unplug the resistor and disconnect the defroster hoses. Step 7: Take heater box out of the car and lay it on the ground. Step 8: Take a coffee break. Then all that's left to do is disassemble the heater box. It is held together with spring clips and once they're removed the two halves separate quite easily. The heater core is held into the housing with a few screws. Now you're home free. Good luck, and get your butt up under that dash and get it done!!
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with this; it's not a fun job by any means, but it's cake compared to these newer cars. A shop I deliver to had some poor guy's dash completely ripped out of his car, parts all over the place. I asked the mechanic if he was rewiring the whole dash, he said "nope, just the heater core". The bill? $500 for labor alone, not even counting the cost of the parts. :shock:
 
I yanked mine from my 70 in about 30 minutes. It wasn't that bad. Or course I didn't replace it, I just blocked off all the holes. :)
 
Theres is no need to take the whole box out.Just remove all the clips and the front 1/2 of the box will come off.After you take off the front 1/2 the heater core is right there.
 
Yeah just getting to those last clips on top is the trick, let alone replacing them. I like the front bucket removal idea, it woulda saved my back alot.
 
unreformed66 said:
You guys who are crying about a heater core swap in our old Mopars have obviously never done one in a modern car. I spent 12 hours doing the one in my girlfriend's Jeep Cherokee last year. I did my Scamp in about 2 hours including a coffee and smoke break along with cleaning up the heater box once it was out. Listen closely. Step 1: Drain coolant. Step 2: remove heater hoses. Step 3: remove 4 bolts from around the heater blower motor. Step 4: look beside the passenger kickpanel and straight up for the nut on the support rod that goes up inside the cowl vent and remove it. (this rod is a lot like a battery hold down rod with a hook on top that simply hooks into the vent to hold the heater box up). Step 5: wiggle the heater box backward (towards the seats and down until it drops to the floor. Be careful here as there is coolant in that old heater core that can ruin your carpet's day. Step 6: Remove control cables and unplug the resistor and disconnect the defroster hoses. Step 7: Take heater box out of the car and lay it on the ground. Step 8: Take a coffee break. Then all that's left to do is disassemble the heater box. It is held together with spring clips and once they're removed the two halves separate quite easily. The heater core is held into the housing with a few screws. Now you're home free. Good luck, and get your butt up under that dash and get it done!!
Click to expand...


one other thing... remove the glove box liner first. helps ALOT with seeing things
 
Removing and installing the heater box difficult in an A body ? Piece of cake, just follow the instructions posted above and its not so hard. The big thing is to find the J hook bolt inside the passengers side vent door, lots of folks forget this. As mentioned above be sure to remove this. Ive seen alot of heater boxes ruined by gorillas in the junkyards that did not remove the J hook, and then they ripped the side out of the vent area where the L bracket is riveted to the box, by gettin midevil on the poor things.

If this is an AC car all bets are off, you need to mess with the compressor lines, and vacuum lines used on these units, still do able, but I would definetely consider removing the pass side seat.

As mentioned above - order your new heater core and get crackin' !!
 
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