i need to replace a leaking heater core on my 1968. there is no ac.

i evidently lack mechanical skill to know how to do this on sight.

anyway i loosened the three small bolts in the firewall from the engine side.
then i tried to remove the heater assembly. however it is still stuck
on the RHS with a vent of some sort. how can i loosen that?

also should i disconnect the battery before proceeding further?

thanks...

 

Did you remove the 2 hoses coming back to the firewall. Those are connected to the core and need to be removed to allow the core to come back into the cab with the removal.



John

 

It's been awhile, but I think you have to remove the liner from the glove box to get the defroster hose and controls loose. I may have had to pull the radio as well.

 

Thanks, that was correct (embarrassed).

After that, I needed to rotate the top of the entire heater assembly 90 degrees towards the back of the truck in order to get access to the 6 5/16" screw bolts that hold the heater assembly back plate (btw these are my terms only, since unfortunately I do not know the official terms) onto the assembly and hide most of the heater core. In order to do that, I needed to loosen with a flat screwdriver two screws that attached two non-electrical heater control wires to the assembly first. After these 8 screws came off, some electrical wires remained, but at least for my franken-ford they were not a problem, and I was able to remove the heater assembly back plate. With the heater assembly back plate removed, the heater core and a spacer sponge holding the heater core in place could be removed without difficulty.

The reason this is happening is because my heater core sprang a leak at the radiator shop while the shop was pressure-testing the old (leaking) radiator for leaks. A leak developed in the heater core. The shop replaced the radiator, left the heater core hoses disconnected, and charged me for a new heater core. However, we did not know which size heater core was in the heater assembly. I was trying to save some money by doing the removal myself.

Now I have to reverse the operation and get the new heater core back into the heater assembly, the assembly back into the cab, and re-connect thee hoses. I am debating whether to change the hoses. The rubber is not hard enough to be cracked but it is probably not something ordinary folks would call flexible either. :-) hmm...

 

Wow, that did not seem to be the case with my truck. However, I had my emergency flasher toggle switch trivially clipped to the bottom of the dashboard beneath the glove compartment. I had restored the glove compartment with a new cardboard compartment box from LMC or somewhere, and then re-lining the cardboard with TAP plastics fiberglass, one of my first restorations. I did not like keeping the emergency flasher toggle switch in its original (?) location inside the glove compartment box, so I left it hanging outside and below.

 

How much pressure did the shop use?

I've see where a shop will do 22psi which will blow out most weak cooling systems.
Ez way to make more income.

Other shops, I've talked to only do a max of 17psi
orich

 

Wanted to say thanks to you guys for taking time to share. This thread helped me swap out the heater core in my '68 this past Saturday AM with almost no swearing!