My wife's 1992 F-150 had a new A/C system installed, apparently by Gomer and Goober Pyle's slower brother, and $1,300 later we've discovered the heater no longer puts out hot air (great thing to discover NOW, eh?)
I found that both hoses going into the firewall are disconnected - one is gone entirely (left-hand side) and the right-hand one is disconnected at the engine side. Both enter the cab on the passenger side...
Another hose, one that seems to be sucking air, is attached to a canister-type thingy (love them technical terms!) mounted on the passenger-side wheel well...

What in the bloody blue blazes has happened to this truck?
Does anyone know how to remedy this, or where I can find a detailed diagram (yeah, draw me a picture... ) that lays out the system?

Please don't recommend I strangle the jerk that did this to us - I don't think his brain would miss the oxygen!
My email is: rocketmanvt@hotmail.com

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hi
Welcome to FTE. We can help you, but you need to be calm and think.
Sounds to me like your A/C mechanic had to pull the heater core box apart, so he took the coolant hoses loose at the engine. He left one dangle, and made a loop with the other, so the coolant just goes out and back in. That way he could run the engine, with the heater core disconected. He probably worked on the A/C off and on until it was done, and forgot about the heater loop. I bet if you take a look, you will find the hose making the loop. The clamp is there, and everything you need to just pop it off the engine and on to the heater core. Before starting, I would either use air or water to flush out the heater core. Might have picked up some crude with it open since summer. Drain a little coolant before you remove the hose, and when done, you will need to add coolant to replace what is missing from the heater core.
Let it idle without the radiator cap for 10-15 minutes. This lets most of the air work its way out of the system. Then fill the radiator, and the overflow tank, and put the cap on. Check it after driving a few times. Might need a little more coolant in the overflow tank.
The hose you found sucking air is doing what it is supposed to do. That air intake is part of the polution control system.

It was a mistake on the part of the A/C guy, but not a big deal. Life is too short to get too excited about every mistake. Some times if you stay calm and think, the solution is obvious.


Lots easier to do when it is your truck broke, and I'm nice and warm while mine is running fine. LOL
Good luck Frank

 

Mayb this will help.


/

 

I'll assume there's some reason why you can't take it back to Gomer and have him fix it...

And if you can't find a picture, you can always drive around until you see another 92 F150 and strike up a conversation. JK, but examining one is complete and works is always a good possible "debug" strategy, particularly for hoses and wires!

 

<l><i>I found that both hoses going into the firewall are disconnected - one is gone entirely (left-hand side) and the right-hand one is disconnected at the engine side.</i>

Hard to follow some of what you say, one kinda contradicts the other but sounds like you had a leaking heater core so they (gomer) or someone else bypassed it by looping one heater core hose right back to the motor.</l>

 

Dont pick on gommer and pile . At least they checked oil and changed tires on Sat. But that was Mayberrie>. :0

 

Welcome to FTE .

All joking aside If you get Hose and route as shown in the posted pic you should be fine. Just watch for leaks from core in case that ws to problem . Funny if they screwwed you for time I think they wold have tried to stick you or a core . I bet they just forgot. Later

 

Thank you all for your help; it has been invaluable, especially fmr9's advice to calm down and think rationally (a little hard for me to do, when someone's screwed up my wife's truck!) And, it didn't help the overall mood that we discovered the problem during a hard rain at, with foggy windshield, at night..."Fury" would be a good descriptor.
I'm actually pretty good at maintaining our vehicles - her Ford, my Saturn, our Harleys, but this whole A/C thing was paid for by my father-in-law, and the work done by a shop owner he swears by (but whom I swear AT...) I don't know much about A/C systems, and this whole thing was my father-in-law's idea, so here we are....

It turns out that the hoses were indeed routed straight back to the engine, bypassing the heater core. I'm just gonna flush out the core, and re-attach the hoses. Problem solved, I believe. And the diagram from subford was precisely what I needed...That, and to cool off...

Thanks again, gents.

 

Its kinda hard to see for sure where those hoses connect to the engine in the diagram. The one that goes to the water pump it the one that connects to the out side far right hand heater core port as see sitting in the truck cab. And the other of course goes to the port neat the thermostat housing on the intake manifold.

 

All is well...Hoses re-routed, heater blows hot air.
Now, about the truck's poor gas mileage...

 

Glad you got it going .
Wasn't so bad was it?

Poor gas mileage?
How bad are we talking?
4x4?
auto?
engine?
Tire size?
Rear end ratio?

Mine gets 13-14 city and just slightly better on the highway.
The truck is a work horse, but not particularly effeceint.
Frank

 

Great advice and I've had to tie heater hoses together to bypass a busted heater core courtesy of an unexpected hard freeze here in Houston many years ago when I had no coolant in my '79 460 Holley due to a slow leak. All of us who work on trucks push the limit and get burned but we know how to fix the problems we create. Yeah I've been an idiot many times and pushed it but the 460 always survived. New member to the board and thanks to the help here I will be fixing a coolant loss problem on a '96 Crown Vic 4.6L that was baffling me. Great place!