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Showing posts from February, 2021

adding a heatercore restrictor

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So reading up on changing the heatercore you come across the information about a restrictor used in later models recommend for the job. The reasons are clear enough that I agree it is a requirement. They are $10 or $12 bucks for a piece of plastic. There is also talk about using a stainless 3/8 1/4 inch socket. I have a ton of junk sockets but they are all plated and probably going to rust. So it's plastic or brass as an option. I poked around and was looking at my air tool attachments when I saw an old helium tank fitting. a quick cut with a hacksaw and a little filing and sanding and it's perfect.  Dropped it in and pushed it to the bend with the back of a rachet. Next is the steering shaft may need some welds. There's some slip I want to take out. I want to remove it by only removing the shaft bolt and loosening the rack from the studs. Like the oe one. This way I know I don't need to collapse the 2 inner joints and the

heatercore part 4

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Put in another 2 hours, opened the top of the heater box. Actually this was the original heater core. As is plainly evident, it was leaking pretty bad. interesting enough, even after the coolant was out it still weighed 3x more then the new one. Removed the original sealant with a scraper and cleaned up a bit with a vaccum and some brake clean. It all went back together pretty easily. I added some black rtv around the same places ford had the flexible sealant and used the additional foam that came with the new core. The heater box was heavy, I ended up resting it on the brake clean can after I got the first stud in. Then I threaded on a nut in the engine bay and was able to walk it back into position and start all the bolts.

heatcore part 3

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Put another 2 hours and got pretty far on the heatercore replacement. Removed the headlight and hazard switches. Removed the cluster shroud and disconnected the cluster and the speedo cable.  Removed the dimmer switch which I knew needs a good cleaning. Check out the yummy green corrosion. Removed the hood release and dropped the steering column. Loosened the nut hidding under the steering column. Removed the 2 bolts under the corner of the dash and the 5 in the speaker grills and the defroster vent. The dash came right down exposing the heater box. I disconnected the heater hoses after I made a coolant catch tray out of and aluminum takeout tray and a water jug section. I bungied the hoses to the intake and put rubber glove fingers over the heater core inlets with rubber bands. And then we are outta time.  Neighbor asked me to swap out the speed sensor on his f150 rear-end. Found a wire that was corroded, soldered

starting the heatercore removal

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So I did the first of the steps to remove the heatercore. unbolted the 2 nuts in the engine bay. unbolted the 1 bolt under the heater box. Bagged and tagged the hardware in Ziplocs and added it to the parts list excel file. lifted off the defroster vent trim to expose the 3 top bolts. released the hazard and defrost switches from the bezel released the headlight and foglight switches. lifted the steering column trim I am disconnecting these because the speedo cable was tight last time I was in there and only let the cluster move inches.  not bad for a few moments in the garage.

heatercore time

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The time has come to test my metal against the dreaded heatercore. I'll let you know how it went.