I was able to balance the tasks of hanging Christmas lights and fixing my heater last week. This involved spending all my blue chips in the family time department. I got all my information from this forum - Thanks to all of you.

I removed the heater box and floor ducting and spent $32 to have the box stripped to bare metal. I primed and painted the box to original appearance. I did leak and flow tests on the heater core. I used high temp RTV to form a thin gasket inside the box so the core wouldn't rattle. I found a clog in the intake manifold inlet (brown gue in the nozzle - cleaned and flushed) that was causing the heater problem. My son and I put the whole rig back together and it works!

I had a problem with the heater blower resistor that mounts into the top of the box. The wafer cracked but was repairable with the help of carpenter's glue. I have no idea what this resistor does or if it is working correctly. I'm guessing this is some sort of heat switch that shuts off the blower at some high heat point.

My son is proud of his contribution and the Christmas lights are shining brightly - maybe I have one blue chip left for a transmission cooler line refit.

The resister determines your blower speeds (other then hi speed) if your lower speeds work, the resister is fine!

Jim,

Thanks. Lower blower speeds work fine.