the dreaded heater core

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Jun 9, 2012
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oklahoma
My Car
1973 mustang sportsroof - 351c 2v - fmx trans.
Hello folks, my 73 fastback that came with factory air conditioning has a severely leaking heater core. I already picked up new one, any advice or tips on doing the teardown and install will be greatly apreciated. Thanks in advance.

 
The rest is pretty strait up and down. Just be carefull of how you handle the box. Some can be pretty brittle. I can send you the service manual how to if you need it.

 
If not in a huge hurry, get one of the heater/ac box gasket sets so you can replace all the dried up seals while you have it apart.

I just received mine from CJ Pony from back order from their Christmas sale. Going to rebuild mine in a week or so.

 
Not in a huge hurry. I had to wait on a part from them for 2 months before that was on back order from Scott Drake. Mark that would be cool if you don't mind sending that. Thanks everyone.

 
Not in a huge hurry. I had to wait on a part from them for 2 months before that was on back order from Scott Drake. Mark that would be cool if you don't mind sending that. Thanks everyone.
LOL same ole story same ole song and dance..................been there done that on the wait

 
If you have a center console, you may wanna remove that too other wise you may not be able to tilt the whole heater core assembly enough to get it out. I had to when I redid mine.

Other than that it is a matter of patience, which I have very little of, unfortunately.

But I was able to pull it off so it can't be that hard. ;-)

 
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You dont need to remove the whole box to change out the heater core..There is an access panel that covers the core...remove the panel..the core comes out,,

 
Thanks for the tips everyone!, I was just finished up all of the underhood stuff when we made this amazing discovery after running the engine for a while and noticed brand new coolant/water puddling up in the driveway so for now just looped one of the heater hoses back around. Luckily the center console is out along with alot of the dash components for bulb replacement and clean up so I will have a little more room to work. Thanks again, this place has been very helpful to me in alot of ways, great bunch of folks here.

 
The guys at West Coast Cougar put together some pretty good videos. The Cougar and Mustang are siblings that went down the same assembly line. Watching this video may help.



 
You dont need to remove the whole box to change out the heater core..There is an access panel that covers the core...remove the panel..the core comes out,,
That is what I was wondering. I read about that before I took mine out but I did not find anything like it. There was one but it was at the back facing the firewall, so I needed to remove the whole thing. Is there a difference between air co and non air co boxes regarding that cover?

 
I did it a couple fof years ago and was able to get the core in wothout geetting the unit out from under the dash- taking out the glove box and door helped a lot on this. I also changed the blower motor at the same time since it was there- if you have AC the blower motor is not problme but if you dont it is. You may also want to get some foam insulation tape since chances are the stuff that is there is no longer in good shape.

Also put something like pastic over the carpet since some fluid will leak out and it is better to have it on the plastic than you can remove than to allow it to soak into the carpet.

I did mine w/ taking out the seat or center console. The core came from auto zone with a lifetime warranty for ~$40 and I was able eot get a few bucks for the old one from the metal recycler.

 

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I hope to get to mine in this weekend also. I have most of the interior ripped out already, I'm putting in new carpet along with some other goodies, a steering wheel, LED bulbs, Raamat sound deadener, a lot of small stuff to freshen everything up. I'll get a thread posted next week probably with pictures.

 
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