hello guys. just did this to my 1981 ford f-150 custom w/o a/c 2wd manual. yours might be or might not be same but this is intended to show a general uninstall of the assembly to get to the heatercore or blowermotor. i dont know if i did it the right way but i got it done so i took some pictures as i was going through it myself.

Under the dash:::
1) take out glovebox
2) Three washernuts you have to get to


lowest one

highest one

right behind glove box

 

Man, I hope I don't have to do this on my truck anytime soon. That dealer added A/C will be right in the way........

 

Under Hood:::
1)remove cowl panel to get to upper left bold. (mine had a nut in the back of it.)
a series of screws along the rubber stripping (8) and in the vents them selfs (4)
2) do a reach-around to the bottom and unscrew the lower left bolt.
3) unplug fan and resonators.
4) take off wiper blades

starting from the left






showing the bottom left bolt in crowl panel


showing the upper left bolt in crowl panel


showing the upper bolt under the hood

 

taking off wipers you have to pull little tab up and lock it into place then just pull out from the base.


disconnect the cable adjuster for the heat.


when crowl panel is off... this is a rubber piece that needs to be popped out

this is the hole i had to work with when getting the upper and lower left bolts out


this is what the truck looks like with out the panel


this is what the truck looks like with out heater ***.


***. is out...

 

heater box ***.
1) you have a series of hex head screws (7/16) to unbold to take the frame out.
2) frame holding heatercore in place







then the frame holding heatercore in place. one screw on top and one bottom


then out

 

new heatercore with foam. (i personally like original one).


compare...

built


this is the heater ***. frame and heater box separate

 

before i put it in... i took the time and wirebrushed all the rust off the heatercore frame and sprayed it with some rustcap and blue for ford!


this is new heatercore installed.

this is with the newly sprayed frame installed.


now i put back all the 7/16 hex head screws and tighten everything up...
then back into the firewall... same way. i put all nuts and screws in lose then tightened everything up when it aliened correctly. (this step is easier then uninstall.

new heater hoes with clamps

 

NOW its thermostat changing.
start off with thermostat housing. 2 bolts. (i left hoes clamped bec it was easy to get to without taking it off)



i also took off the bypass hoes it had bec it was never connected to the heatercore.
therm ***. and upper hoes

lower hoes

dont forget to scrap off old gask.

 

AFTER all was said and done... and i put everything back. the therm edge got in between the block and the housing and i bolted it too tight and cracked the housing!
before

after


so now my happy *** has to go buy a new housing... i might wash out cooling system now.. while i am at it. but off to the parts store tomorrow to order one... I was soooo close!

 

I have an 81 F350 without AC and did something kind of similar last Fall.

Mine was leaking where one of the tubes is soldered into the tank, I used a torch to heat
up the solder joints so I could remove the tubes, cleaned everything up as best I could, then
soldered it all back together.

But I also glued some foam rubber to the flap(s) in the box, the original had dry rotted and
turned to dust when I touched it.

Thanks for the pictorial! Rep points for that.

 

sorry for the crappy picture it was taken with my blackberry.

 

BTW what is the "Fref" you use in your title?

 

meant "Ref" short for "Reference". typo

 

OIC.

Did you know you can go edit that? Click the blue Edit button in the lower right, then
click the Advanced button and the title will be in a box above the editor window.

BTW we call those HOWTOs and there are a fair number available in the Tech Tips
sticky; would you be upset if I were to add yours into there someday?

 

hey ya... that would be cool. ya sure. i am changing title now... and i also did something similar with my 74...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...owermotor.html