heater core 90 xlt

[whitey]

well i finally found the leak in my cooling system after looking for it forever. it was on my floor! so basicaly i know i can replace the heater core myself but, is there anything i need to be aware of before i do it? any nice little suprises i need to be ready for? or is it just straight forward remove glove box and rip it out?

thanks.

 

[Bully Bob]

YEP,

On the El Camino I had to get at it fr. under the hood.....

pain but, they're all replacable. Some are just tougher than others.

 

[miesk5]

well i finally found the leak in my cooling system after looking for it forever. it was on my floor! so basicaly i know i can replace the heater core myself but, is there anything i need to be aware of before i do it? any nice little suprises i need to be ready for? or is it just straight forward remove glove box and rip it out?

thanks.

Drain cooling system.

Disconnect heater hoses. (btw, I change these 2 when doing this job; I cut the hoses close to the firewall to make the core EZier to remove; miesk5)

Remove glove box for access. (look @ the way it pops out, miesk5)

Remove 7 screws attaching heater access to cover to plenum.

Disconnect vacuum source. (temperature and function cables; miesk5)

Leave harness attached to cover. Remove cover.

Remove heater core from plenum.

To instali, reverse removal procedure. Labor time 1.1 Hours

Replace sealer (some stores have it; I use water pump sealant which is pliable; miesk5)

Ford part # E9TZ 18476 B list $78.79, but I'm sure you could get it cheaper

by Steve B! w/my suggestions in (...)

and pics and same info here:

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?F...23d800a3ae7.jsp

ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0a/3a/e7/0900823d800a3ae7.jsp

& fyi if this problem occurs again soon and no hoses or outward physical damage is visible:

Heater Core Failure, Repeated TSB 01-15-06 by Ford for 85-96 via miesk5 (Al M) at comcast.net

http://home.comcast.net/~miesk5/technical_...d%20for%2085-96

 

[whitey]

cool thanks guys. guess you know what i'll be doing in a couple hours.

 

[whitey]

thanks for the diagram. duh i forgot they had them over at autozone.com for some things. but, it made it easier. i knew exactly where i was going with the repair before i even started taking the glove box apart. my only gripe was that the only parts store around me that had the core was autozone, and i'm not a huge fan of their parts- i think a lot of them are cheap. but, i really needed the part like yesterday because once i fianlly found where the leak was it was already leaking really fast. not only was i losing a lot of coolant on my floor which is covered luckily by a heavy duty rubber mat but, i have a few dogs and my girlfriend had coolant all over her shoe soles after we drove to the beach. i lost an animal to coolant poisoning years ago and now i'm totally paranoid about it. there was a lot of suffering going on when we finally figured out he had been poisoned.

the heater core replacement was pretty easy actually. what i had a problem with was after i replaced the core and heater hoses i decided to overhaul the rest of the cooling system. i replaced the thermostat, water outlet and every single hose, my radiator is already brand new.

i forgot from my 96 f150 302 how much i hated replacing the thermostat. and it's basically the same setup on the 90 bronco. the right hand bolt (closest to drivers side) on the water outlet is a nightmare (at least for me) to get to. and all hoses are crammed into such a tight spot there. anyway now it's good to go after a lot of cursing. good as new.

anyhow thanks for the input.

 

[broncokenny]

cool thanks guys. guess you know what i'll be doing in a couple hours.

You probably already found out.But its one of the easiest heater cores I ever changed,atleast on

88 XLT Bronco. >-