Hello, does anyone have any tricks for getting the nut off the 6th and final heater core bolt in a 69 without cutting any holes in the well or taking off the fender ? I have the 5 easy ones off, leaving the lower left most nut if you are looking at the cover from the engine side of the fire wall. I have taken the glove box out, and the heater tube thing ( the plastic conduit that runs from the gas pedal underneath the dash to the passenger side ).

If it can't be done do i have to take off the fender ?
Thanks

On my '67 the core had been out before, so I only had to remove 4 bolts. I have a Chassis service manual that shows a picture of unbolting the wheel housing, using a 2x4 (seriously-the factory manual says to do just that) to put in between the lower firewall and the wheel housing. Then unbolt that 6th bolt. I can try to make a copy of the picture but and e-mail it to you if you PM me your e-mail address.

You should be able to remove the heater box with what you have done so far. The core is mounted in the heater box under the dash. The bolt under the fender just mounts the blower box under the hood.

As Jim said, the interior heater box is held to the firewall with five nuts; three on the bottom, and two on top. If you have those off, it'll come out. There are two more screws out under the fender, but as Jim noted, they secure the firewall side heater box cover to the firewall and don't have to be removed to get the interior box out.

Probably need to pull hard as the weatherstripping between the inside box and firewall is keeping it together.

If this heater is presently installed in a daily/driven car, I suggest laying down a large sheet of plastic with NO holes from the the kick panel across the firewall to the trans tunnel back across the front seat button cushion and out the door sill.

Anything to keep the antifreeze off the carpet.

Thanks all for your replies, if i understand correctly if i have taken off 5 of the 6 nuts from the engine side ( leaving on the one that is in the lower left most corner if looking from the front of the engine ) i can still replace the core ? To do so i get under where the glove box was, and after taking off that vent thing, just pull the heater core cover box off ?

While i want to believe this ( trust me i do, it would certainly be easier than taking off the fender or wheel well ) it seems hard to believe that box is going to come off from the inside with that 6th nut still on there.

thanks again

Let's make sure we're tlaking about the same thing.

here's what you see under the hood with everything in place.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/103_0310.jpg

Here's what it looks like disassembled. See the three evenly spaced holes across the bottom of the opening, and the two at the top? That's all that holds the interior box in the car.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/108_0829.jpg

Here's the box removed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/heaterbox.jpg

Here's a closer shot, showing the five studs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/ekammerer/heterboxtoo.jpg

Thanks very much for attaching the pictures. In the last picture, on the bottom left, it looks to be some sort of post or stud rather than a threaded bolt. on mine, I looked at the head of this stud from the inside and assumed that it was a bolt just like the others. So i have 5 bolts and one stud to deal with. And if i have the nuts off the 5 then i just need to unhook the heater core housing unit on passager side of the firewall....attack it from the inside as i guess you have done.

Thanks for this help - i was not sure what to do. I will try this way.
thanks again.

Once the hardware is removed from the engine side, break loose the housing. You odn't need to even disconnect the cables as the housing will lay on the pass floor. The reason I suggested putiing down plastic to catch the coolant.

Unless you need to recondition the box, it's fairly easy.

Another important item to check is the replacement core. Most cores, I have read, are of a different size than original, even ones from the restoration houses. It may be a better fix to recore the OE core than to replace it entirely. If you do decide to replace the core, take your old one for comparision. Usually, ones having AC/Delco insignia are of the correct physical size.

Good luck. Check operation of the cables and the doors they control and foix those while the box is out. You can use clay weatherstripping from the hardware store to reseal the box to the firewall.

Take pictures of the process. It helps on reassembly.

so far so good ! I was able to get everything out of there. The core was a tight squeeze ( the old one was just too banged up to solder ). I lubed up all of the moving parts of the heater conduit ( still don't know what that thing is called). and will re-assemble tomorrow after work. Hopefully that goes as smoothly. It will sure be nice to have some heat as New England summer only has about 4 weeks left.

As you look at Eric's last two pictures, the door behind the core is the air temperature door. When door is open, as shown, max heat.

Top picture, the lever on the right is for defrost. Opens a door to direct air up to windshield.

Is this true for 68's as well? Same 5 bolts? I want to remove my heater box and put a delete stainless plate and put in vintage in the future.

Also, how do I get my hoses off the heater core without breaking the soldier? Would like to keep the GOOD original core in tact.

It has been a while since I changed the core in my 68, but I recall it having the same five studs holding the interior box to the firewall, and those plus two screws holding the engine side heater cover in place.

Best way I know of to get the hoses off without twisting on the heater tubes is to just cut them off beyond the tube ends, and then just slit the hose remnants long ways with a razor and peel them off the tubes.

Here is a couple pics of a 69 firewall and heater box maybe it will help too:

http://home.socal.rr.com/ewillis1/images/FrontClipOff002_sm.jpg
http://home.socal.rr.com/ewillis1/images/Before_sm.jpg

http://home.socal.rr.com/ewillis1/images/Heaterbox01_sm.jpg
Couple of the studs broke while taking them off, had to reweld some new ones, which you can see in the next pic:

http://home.socal.rr.com/ewillis1/images/HeaterBox001_sm.jpg