1977 Plymouth Fury Station Wagon - heater core advice needed

OK. I check in every so often, if you have any questions, or you can send any questions on reply to my emails.

 

ok, i got em,, looks like it can be done without removing the dash.. hope i can do without moving seat, seat does not move.. seized in place..lol and radio will be fun to remove,,, not stock and a equalizer amp is under that..
but i think i can do it..
thanks for the info.. will give my results soon..

 

Good luck with it. If the seat's stuck, you should pull it and repair/lube it as part of doing the heater core. No better time than the present!

 

it is not the original seat, its on wood blocks bolted thru the floor and the middle is resting on the hump.
but ya,, good idea. the back could be raised a lil bit.
too bad the whole car can't be restored. , but i like it, and will drive it til the engine falls out..
i said before i'll drive it til the wheels fall off, but that has happened 2x already..
1 ball joint failed while backing out of the drive way, and another time the U bolts for right side broke
while going up the ramp to the scales at the local dump..and ya.. there was a long line of angry trash trucks and other people behind me.. but i got it off the ramp, and had it fixed later on that day.. ( roadside repair.) lucky it was not a horrible fix.

 

Dude, I've been there. Nothing gets you in bigger trouble when you lose a wheel on a single-width bridge during rush hour, when a bunch of people are trying to get around the construction traffic on the nearby Interstate. Fortunately, with other driver's help, I was able to pop the spare on with extra lug nuts I had, but of course, a bunch of mad people were honking, yelling and flipping me off after I was able to move the truck out of the way.

 

UPDATE >> ok,, update time, not long after i had posted about my transmission problem ( rebuilt now ) my turn signal switch went out,, i got a replacement in. was not too bad to change, but i had to pull the steering wheel to do it..
the new switch had a extra 3 wires on a separate connector. does anyone know what the extra connector is for?
the new turn signal switch works fine otherwise. anyway since i had the wheel apart and the lower panel off, i decided that now is as good of time as any to start removing the heater core.. it was a lil tough, but i got it out.. getting it back in is the issue.. i might make some mods to make things easier..like making it possible to remove the servo on the front side so it clears the dash easier. taking the AC and heater hoses was real fun too.. ( stuck stuff ) i have to see now about finding a core, but the ones i looked up are not what i need,, mine has a large plate attached to the heater core, and it is not removable. so the new one i am searching has to have that plate on it..
hopefully i find it soon.
it's amazing how much room is under the dash after removing the heater / AC box..

 

You're not just whistling "Dixie" there! I did the heater core in my '83 CP way back when, and same thing--once it was out, plenty of room underdash. The only difference would be that the evap core was in a box underhood. And, when removing the heater box, it has to rotate forward, so the excess coolant inside drains out.

 

i got the 2 halves of the box apart to reveal the insides.. if the AC ever did work, i would have never gotten any cool air,
the coil was full of leaves and junk. i guess it got sucked in thru the fresh air vent. and the coil was clogged with so much dust and dirt. i just happened to have AC coil cleaner handy, and boy did it do a job on it. the stuff gets hot and foams out the dirt very well.. the AC coil looks new now. the heater coil it was ok, no dirt in it,, i guess the AC coil caught it all.
i'll report back more news soon.

 

^^^that coil cleaner is nasty stuff. I did maintenance work all through school and one of the guys was up on the roof cleaning the coils on all the ac units. well as he spraying the wind picked up at the wrong time and some of the cleaner blew back on his legs. He was wearing shorts and it left some pretty nasty little marks. This was industrial strength stuff so it might be a little more potent

 

ya that coil cleaner i have is very alkali based. it's bad on skin. if you get it on ya, you better rinse it off as fast as you can..
like i said the stuff gets very hot and foams up, pushes the dirt out.. and your coils are like new.. you are supposed to dilute it 50:1 normally, but less if very dirty..

 

It's a good thing it didn't blow into his face. At a shop I used to work for, I was using Muriatic Acid to clean corrosion out of a carb float bowl, and got some of it on my knee, through my coveralls. It burned pretty good, but luckily we had some Arm and Hammer. Another time, in handling a partly-full gas tank, my co-worker tilted it for no good reason, and it popped the rag out of the filler hose nipple; luckily, I closed my eyes and mouth and leaned my head back, but it sloshed all over my torso, and with no clean extra pairs of coveralls there, I had to run home, but I had to shower because the gas burned my skin. That was not nice at all.

 

well guys, i might be in luck, i am gonna try to make some unobtainium this weekend..
i found a core that very closely matches mine, and with some mods, i think it will work..
the core is new and i actually got it from Auto Zone for bout 60.00 it is for a Plymouth barracuda.
the core size is the same, the pipes look the same, only the metal frame looks different..that i can change..
stay tuned, i'll tell more later and post pictures...

 

I'm interested now. I just redid the a/c and comfort control on my caddy and the evaporator was about one third plugged. People post online that 134a isn't as good as r12. If your evap is 50 plus years old this is probably why.

 

Wonder if you could put some a that industrial strength coil cleaner on there?

 

mine was worse.... and regular coil cleaner worked just fine...looks new now, and easy to see thru it now..
weather here has been bad, so i have not had time to show pictures of my modifications..
they went a lil deeper than i thought.. even tho the coil fit just right, the pipes did not line up quite right..
so i was forced to do the extreme, i actually had to take the old core apart, i am decent with soldiering plumbing, so i took a chance and gave it a try.. i unsoldiered the cap that my held my old pipes, cleaned it up , primed it with flux, then removed the top of the new core ( if it did not work, i'm out $60.00, ) i feel really confident, i never did this before, i have no idea how cores are constructed.. any way, i knew the cores were the same size, and my old cap fit the new core perfectly. so i used my mini torch.. it seemed to work better than a large plumbing torch but i took my time and made sure the soldiered flowed perfectly.
it worked better than i thought.. i have not pressure tested it yet. but i am confident.
it all fits good now, i just have to reassemble the case, then install.. some of the thick foam gasket material is bad, i am trying to think what to use as a substitute. also the rubber gasket that went on the blower motor fell apart.. wonder if i can get gasket without buying a new motor.. and also the foam gaskets that went around the AC and heater core pipes.. if i have to , they will be easy to make.. but the large foam gasket and blower motor gasket is my main dilemma.
i'll post fotos soon...