I have a 1976 F250, the heater in the truck seems to be froze up. I was wondering if anyone has ever completely taken there stock heater out? My thoughts are that I will take it out and just put in a dash heater from amazon and hook it to a toggle. What would my problems be if I decide to do this? Or is it even a possibility? Thanks

 

A lot of people take them out for dedicated mud or race trucks, but you lose the ability to defog the windshield as well as stay warm. Those electric heaters from Amazon, assuming that's what you're talking about, are usually pieces of junk. Ok for getting some extra heat on the windshield to deice on a cold morning, but they won't heat the truck up much and they are a huge drain on the electrical system. A lot of them don't even come with thick enough wire for their current draw so they draw even more amps than necessary, which leads to blowing fuses which leads to bigger fuses bring installed which leads to a wire fire.

The heater isn't too complicated. I'd just fix it. Bronco graveyard sells most of the parts.

 

It's gotta heat the truck more than it does at the moment, and I was trying to go on a budget until I finish up college. After that I plan to do a complete restoration. Thanks for the info!!

 

It is not too hard to take out a standard heater. I took mine out, cleaned it up, replaced the core and had it back in in an evening.

First it would be a good idea to trouble shoot. For example, run a fused wire from batt+ to the blower motor power feed in the engine compartment and see if the blower motor runs. Also make sure the heater hoses feel warm like the water is circulating correctly.

The heaters are very easy to service... for the price of that Amazon heater you could get a new blower motor and whatever else you need to fix it and have it back in.

I used the factory service manual as a guide. Basic removal is 1) disconnect hoses 2) disconnect power and ground for the blower motor 3) disconnect control cables 4) remove mounting bolts 5) wiggle it down and out. The "wiggle it out" part took me a couple tries. I understand removing the lower pass side dash supports and pulling the lower dash sheet metal out a bit helps.

If you do pull it out, might as well change the core while you are at it. They are not real expensive.

PS: the core has foam packing/insulation around it which has probably turned to dust. Self stick foam tape from the home improvement store makes a good replacement. This is important so air goes through the heater core and not around it.

 

Thanks a load! I will give it a try this weekend!

 

I'd like to also add if you are replacing the heater core get the "high output" core if it doesn't have one already. May not be the exact phrase used at the parts store but hard to misinterpret that. My truck had the standard. I got the high output because it was the only one in stock. I don't regret it one bit. Made a world of a difference! The high output is a little longer so you may have to cut a small piece of plastic out from inside the housing. No big deal. It was easy to do and is more than worth it for the upgrade.