Hey Guys, My heater core started leaking on the pass floor. I havent done one in years, What am I up against ? Do I have to remove the pass side fender skirt or just go under the dash? The car is a 1972 GS with a/c. Thanks
If it's like my 68 your gonna have to pull that fender. Since I'm in the middle of the resto process I had it apart any way so I sent all the coils (heater, evap, condensor, radiator) out for flush and pressure test. If you do a search in the chasis resto forum I did a write up on changing one out from scratch.
On my 70 I didn't have to remove the fender. Take the hoses off at the firewall first. Everything is in the passenger compartments, and the inlet & outlet poke through the firewall into the engine compartment. Also, be ready to dump fluid all over unless you can blow it out of the core first. Basically, we removed the plastic housing on the passenger compartment side of the firewall and managed to work the core out that way. You may have to disconnect the climate control cables so you don't damage them. Sorry, its been a long time since I did it, so don't remember much, but I didn't have to remove the fender.
What the book says Chris- This is from the Chassis Service Manual for 1971: ************************************************** Removal 1 Remove right front fender skirt. 2 Drain radiator. 3 Disconnect control cables from lever of defroster door and outside air inlet door on heater assembly. 4 Disconnect temperature control cable from lever of temperature door on heater assembly. 5 Remove attaching nut from heater assembly studs. 6 Disconnect heater inlet and outlet hose from heater core inlet and outlet ports. 7 Remove connector from blower motor resistor. 8 Remove screws securing lower portion of defroster outlet assembly on top of heater assembly. 9 Work heater assembly rearward until studs clear dash, and remove heater assembly. Installation 1 Install heater assembly reverse of removal procedure. 2 Adjust control cables as necessary. ************************************************** So, according to the manual you need to remove the fender skirt. The same manual describes removing the skirt with the front fender in another section, including discharging the AC lines. ou: I can't figure out from the manual illustrations why you need to remove the skirt. Seems like a lot of effort as it appears the rest of the procedure involves work on the interior side of the firewall. I could be wrong. Those heater inlet/outlet spring clamps are a pain to get to (if you still have those), but someone must have come up with an easy way to get them off (I'd like to know what it is). I would have to think the recommendation to remove the fender skirt must be for more than access to those clamps. Hopefully, someone else will clarify. I hope this was somewhat helpful. It doesn't 100% answer your question, but at least describes what the factory recommended procedure is.
If you look at the plastic cover over the heater under the dash, you will see on the bottom right hand corner, a little( about 1/2 inch) round bump. If you drill right through the middle of the bump with a 5/16 drill, you will remove the bottom right hand bolt holding the unit in.This is the bolt that needs the fender taken off. I just did this on my 69 and it made removal of the heater core a piece of cake. A radiator shop clued me in ,and told me that three bolts are enough to hold the unit
I have my 69 apart waiting on the new heater core to be delivered. The reason for the inner fender removal, is to allow access to 2 or 3 screws on the bottom side of the evaporator housing that go through and hold the core housing to the firewall. I had to remove the 2 bolts along the bottom of the fender to allow me to tweak it out far enough to get the inner fender past the mounts. Loads of fun. :ball:
I've done this job without removing the fender or messing with the A/C box. Only special trick was using a 1.5 inch hole saw to cut a 300+ degree hole in just the right place in the back of the wheelhouse. I posted exact instructions for this job on another thread here. I'll go find them for you now. Here is the site: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=499&highlight=heater+core The sheetmetal cutting issue is a bit controversial....
Definately a suck job no matter what you decide to do, opening a hole in the fenderwell would probably work, just depends on what you want to do.
If you take the fender off - Replace the fan motor while you're in there. Murphy says it's next to go if you don't.
A-ha. So that's how I did it without removing any sheet metal. Must have stripped the bolt from the heater box. Oh well, its not been a problem.
