SY2932
Administrator
Finally broke down and bought a replacement yesterday, it was $18 at Autozone part number 398221. Not difficult to do at all as syty stuff goes. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate it around a 3.
I pressure tested my old one just to confirm what I already knew. Stuffed a finger in one of the lines and put my rubber tipped blowgun in the other. Did the same to the new one to make sure it was kosher before installing it... Apparently it was replaced at least once by someone else over eleven years ago:
I used the excellent write up here to walk me through it. Just a couple of observations:
Some folks said that they were able to do it without removing the ECM. While it is possible, getting it out of the way gives you a lot more room under the dash to wrestle with the cover. Besides, takes less than a minute to remove and you will be messing with the cover WAY longer than that.
I like to keep a few short lengths of solid core copper wire around so that I can secure stuff when I'm working on something. I used one to secure the ECM wires so they stayed out of the way during the R&R.
The hose that goes to the passenger side vent is *right* in the way of the screw in the upper right hand corner that holds the cover on. I stuffed it behind the dash just to the right of the access panel in the back of the glove box. Clear shot to that screw once it was out of the way.
I didn't completely remove the metal strap on the left side to pull the old heater core out. All I had to do was rotate it from the 6 o'clock position to 9 o'clock after I bent the right one up. One less tiny screw to mess with later...
Installing the new one was a pain at first because it seemed no matter what way I turned and twisted it, the lines wouldn't go through the firewall (couldn't get the right angle because the heater core would hit the bottom of the dash). I even took the time to bend them as closely as possible to the old one before I started but, it didn't help any. The "secret" to getting it in was to PULL the BOTTOM of the dash towards the REAR of the truck as I pushed it up in place. Worked like a charm and I didn't have to risk fracturing the lines trying to get the new heater core in.
Getting the cover back on was actually the hardest part of the R&R for me. Getting the bottom screws in first followed by the top ones worked best in my situation. Any other combination wouldn't allow me to get the two halves to seal correctly. After you get the bottom screws in, the top ones may not be even close to their respective holes (they were 1/4" apart on my truck). The "trick" to getting the top to line up and seal the two halves together is to push UP and towards the FRONT of the truck on the "diagonal" section of the cover near the passenger side.
Lastly a long 1/4" drive extension, a 1/4" driver handle and swivel will make things go much easier. HTH's someone out there in syty land
.
I pressure tested my old one just to confirm what I already knew. Stuffed a finger in one of the lines and put my rubber tipped blowgun in the other. Did the same to the new one to make sure it was kosher before installing it... Apparently it was replaced at least once by someone else over eleven years ago:
I used the excellent write up here to walk me through it. Just a couple of observations:
Some folks said that they were able to do it without removing the ECM. While it is possible, getting it out of the way gives you a lot more room under the dash to wrestle with the cover. Besides, takes less than a minute to remove and you will be messing with the cover WAY longer than that.
I like to keep a few short lengths of solid core copper wire around so that I can secure stuff when I'm working on something. I used one to secure the ECM wires so they stayed out of the way during the R&R.
The hose that goes to the passenger side vent is *right* in the way of the screw in the upper right hand corner that holds the cover on. I stuffed it behind the dash just to the right of the access panel in the back of the glove box. Clear shot to that screw once it was out of the way.
I didn't completely remove the metal strap on the left side to pull the old heater core out. All I had to do was rotate it from the 6 o'clock position to 9 o'clock after I bent the right one up. One less tiny screw to mess with later...
Installing the new one was a pain at first because it seemed no matter what way I turned and twisted it, the lines wouldn't go through the firewall (couldn't get the right angle because the heater core would hit the bottom of the dash). I even took the time to bend them as closely as possible to the old one before I started but, it didn't help any. The "secret" to getting it in was to PULL the BOTTOM of the dash towards the REAR of the truck as I pushed it up in place. Worked like a charm and I didn't have to risk fracturing the lines trying to get the new heater core in.
Getting the cover back on was actually the hardest part of the R&R for me. Getting the bottom screws in first followed by the top ones worked best in my situation. Any other combination wouldn't allow me to get the two halves to seal correctly. After you get the bottom screws in, the top ones may not be even close to their respective holes (they were 1/4" apart on my truck). The "trick" to getting the top to line up and seal the two halves together is to push UP and towards the FRONT of the truck on the "diagonal" section of the cover near the passenger side.
Lastly a long 1/4" drive extension, a 1/4" driver handle and swivel will make things go much easier. HTH's someone out there in syty land
.
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