ANSWERS: 2
  • That is what I am working on tonight. My heater on my 95 Escort was leaking coolant into the passenger compartment, not to mention steaming the interior. I found the heater hoses on the firewall in the engine compartment about half way down directly below the pivot point of the right windshield wiper. This puts the heater and core directly behind the stereo in the middle of the car. You have to remove the heater box with the flaps inside and wheels on it because the core is inside. Right now I have all the plastic covers under the dash removed and I am having trouble getting to the speedometer cable to unhook it so I can remove the instrument panel which the manual says is necessary. I have unbolted the heater box but can only move it back about an inch because of the ductwork for the dash vents. At least one of these has a screw that was put in from the inside! Also, the two top nuts holding the heater in were way up next to the firewall under the dash, and I am not sure how I will replace them. I also removed the stereo and the heater.AC controls whieh the manual does not recommend but which looks necessary to me. This whole venture is way way complicated. By comparison, you can remove the engine from an air cooled VW of the 60s in 20 minutes with three wrenches and a screwdriver (a pair of pliers helps) I am anticipating that this thing will rattle when I get it back together and blow air in places never intended, even with the aid of duct tape and hot glue. Well, nothing lasts forever.
  • Several hours of work later I have finally removed the heater box with the core. It does have a leak so I am not wrong on that. I wound up having to remove the entire dash which involved taking out the instrument panel and the passenger air bag, dropping the steering column, unbolting the dash at the console on the floor, both sides of the dash and along the top front of the dash. It would have been good to have had help in raising the dash while I pulled the ehater, but I managed. I will enlist somebody for this chore when I replace it. I did not remove wiring because I only lifted the dash up and back a few inches, did not actually remove it, so hopefully I won't have to deal with routing the wires on reinstallation Last night I was making noises about using my sawzall to cut through the metal under the dash but after reading how to remove the thing in the Chilton manual, I did manage. If I had it to do over I would seriously consider running it to some southern state and selling it without a heater, plugging the hoses. Then spending the winter looking for an easier car to work on like a 66 Falcon.

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