1977 Ford F-150 Custom 2WD 3 on the tree manual 4.9L 300

Long time lurker, first time sharing. I just wanted to let you all know about my little discovery when I went to change my heater core out the other weekend.

I have been running without heat this winter so far, I live in Minnesota and driving my truck in the sub zero weather has not been fun. Even with the heat turned up all the way it was barely producing warm air, I tried flushing the heater core like a lot of posts recommend, and no improvement. I ordered a new heater core from Autozone, turned out to be the wrong one. Just a heads up there is a difference between the high output heater and the standard output heater, the high output is longer and if you have the standard in you vehicle (like me) it will not fit because there is a metal tang in the way (im sure you could cut it out if you want to run the bigger heater core). But, as it turns out, I did not even need a new heater core. I finally found a semi-warm garage to work in, I pulled the whole assembly out, and found this...





Turns out it is hard to get heat anywhere when you are warming a mouse condo. After the removal of all the stuff that was built up (luckily no mice) I had Heat for the first time! I can feel my legs again!

Thanks for reading,
Dave

 

I hope you checked any electrical wires and such in proximity to the condo's entrance/exit for eaten away insulation.
Those little gnawing freeloaders love wiring......

 

The Bigger heater core was used mostly for super and crew cabs. More space to heat. I found half a box of .22 rounds in mine. Things you put up on the dash find their way into the defroster quite easily.