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So I finally got around to doing the heater core in my '87 wagon. It blew, oh, like 3 years ago. I've had 2 other cars but the Maxi has been kept for its ability to haul stuff (the other 2 are/were older Cadillacs with no trunk pass thru or folding rear seats) and now that I'm in a position where the Maxi will be my only car for awhile, I had to do it with Michigan winter approaching. I aborted my attempt a couple years ago due to not having a needed tool or two (low profile screw drivers and needing to extract a screw) and just bypassed it.
It's kind of a b*tch.
The FSM is not as clear as I would have liked to have seen in terms of what to remove. One or two things didn't need to be removed (the strip of lights and the chime module on top of the dash, for instance). I would have removed the A-pillar trims sooner than I did. The FSM also says to push 2 tabs to remove the speedo cable from the back of the cluster housing. But guess what, there was absolutely no way to get my hand back there to release it. And trying to reattach it without the ability to line the cluster and cable up with one's hands and not even being able to see the two parts you're trying to stick back together takes luck and patience...and a good 5 minutes. It felt like it had clicked back into place but honestly, I didn't know if the speedo was going to work until my test drive after.
Any wiring in the dash is basically on one harness that is attached to the dash itself with various clips and zip ties. The harness connects to the SMJ behind the fuse panel so there really is no need to try to remove the dash wiring harness while doing this...releasing the harness from the SMJ frees up the dash's wiring and removing the dash takes the harness with it.
No need to remove the climate control cables from the control panel for my manual A/C. The cables are stout enough that the unit just kinda dangles while working.
Beyond that, it's mostly just removing a ton of the interior. I had the added step of removing the carpet to clean it (the pad on the floor was toast from the coolant soaking and maybe I'll get to replacing that at some point). I just cut the front half out, just behind the front bolts for the front seats to be less noticeable and then the front half in half again down the length, which is hidden by the console. So while my one piece carpet is now in 3 pieces, it was cut in such a way that it's basically undetectable. And now clean.
In the 2 pics, the heater module is sitting on top of the shifter, the 2 white-ish tubes being part of the old heater core itself that poke thru the firewall. To the right is the A/C module and the far right is the intake and fan module. Second pic is everything that I removed. Screw/bolts bagged and kept with their respective parts.
Holy four letter word... That! is a lot of stuff to have to remove to replace a heater core. This morning, I am going to sacrifice some small animals to the heater core gods, in the hopes I never have to do this on my 1987 GXE sedan. How long did it take, minus the carpet, to get it completed? What typically causes a heater core to start leaking?
It took me 2 days. Cleaning the carpet, mats and the floor itself in the car added a couple hours. It had started off by leaking...could smell it in the car and then it just blew in spectacular fashion...steamed up all the windows. In old vs. new part, you can see the green crustiness where it had been leaking.
I have a question about how well the heater works.
Back in the 1970's and early 80's I had 3 Datsun 510s. A 74, a 78 and an 80 (or 81 can't remember now). Anyway, in the winter my feet were always cold, I couldn't seem to get any heat to the floor on the drivers side. The passenger side was a blast furnace.
While I had the 78, I decided to spend some time on this problem. What I finally discovered was that the air duct for the floor was like a letter T, coming out of the main duct and then splitting for the 2 sides of the floor. The end of the duct on the drivers side was closed off! After I cut the cap off, my feet got plenty of heat. After I bought the 1980 (used circa 1982) and the first winter was coming, I looked at the duct and it was the same way, closed off.
So I was wondering if the 810 was made the same way.
10-13-2016, 09:34 AM
