gm280
Supreme Mariner
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2011
- Messages
- 14,604
Well we had a very great Thanksgiving diner with are entire family in attendance. First time in many years everyone was here. Usually partial family, but this year all of the family. And everybody had a great time as well.
But onto what happened after Thanksgiving. My younger adult son ask me if I would help him change out the HEATER CORE and the AC EVAPORATOR in his son's (my grandson) 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee. And of course I said YES. Why I do that to myself is anybody's guess, but I really do like working on things like that. Seems a monstrous job, but been there done that many times before. He originally talked about just the heater core and I suggested changing both while we were in there. Because you all know the Murphy's Law of automotive would happen. As soon as you replace the heater core, the AC Evaporator would go out. And since they both are relatively cheap, do both and be done with it.
So day one was remove as much as possible in the cold rainy day. While it was in the breezeway between my shop and house, the wind and cold still worked on us all the day. We managed to remove everything to the fire wall. Amazing how many screws Jeep used on their dash assemblies. I guess they got a great deal on them and put them everywhere. The good thing is they were all most 100% the same type. So no problems getting them mixed up during reassembly.
Now to take the plenum apart to get to the AC Evaporator out. The heater core removes out the top. But only after it is removed from the firewall. And of course everything was deteriorated to the point of crumpled foam dust all over everything. And the amount of debris inside was almost unbelievable. I was really surprised we didn't find any animal living in there. But we got it apart and removed and started cleaning the plenum up to reinstall the new cores.
I looked a the blower fan and it was looking bad. So yes it got a refurbish as well. And since the brushes were in great shape, I cleaned the armature and bushing (no ball bearing in that motor) on the lathe so the shaft and armature was polished back to bright steel/copper/brass/whatever. I regreased the bushings and reassembled it again. Now it looked almost new again...almost!
As you can guess, the different "doors" inside, that channel the Heat, AC, Defrost and Fresh Air, were shot as far as the foam was concerned. So we set out to an arts and crafts type store to see what they may have to replace that foam again. And after searching for what seemed like hours, we found some correct thickness foam and some felt as well. And as we were walking to the check out, I thought about the foamed back headliner material I just bought to recover the sun visors on our Blazer.
We still bought the foam and felt and come home. However, after comparing each for the job, we settle on the headliner foam backed material being how it looked exactly like what they used from the factory. And we cutout those pieces and 3M spray high adhesive glued them in place, materiel side to the doors with the foam exposed to seal better. They looked like factory and we reassembly the plenum with everything refurbished inside now.
The reassembly went pretty much a freeze and we only took us about a couple hours, if that. I was impressed how fast it all went back together. And equally surprising was everything worked again after refilling the cores and bleed off the air. And NO PARTS left over...go figure!
And it was surprising to feel the heat and air (that was cold) work like they were supposed to work again. Now the grandson can drive to school with heat in the mornings.
Not the usual Thanksgiving weekend type idea, but you have to do what you have to do. I understand the either of those jobs can cost $1000 dollars or more excluding parts. And if you have never done one before, it feels like that amount of labor too. But that wasn't our first rodeo and we kind of knew what to expect going in. Just a different vehicle this time. I really think they start with a heater core, and build the entire vehicles around them.
You all have a great day, more boat work to come...
But onto what happened after Thanksgiving. My younger adult son ask me if I would help him change out the HEATER CORE and the AC EVAPORATOR in his son's (my grandson) 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee. And of course I said YES. Why I do that to myself is anybody's guess, but I really do like working on things like that. Seems a monstrous job, but been there done that many times before. He originally talked about just the heater core and I suggested changing both while we were in there. Because you all know the Murphy's Law of automotive would happen. As soon as you replace the heater core, the AC Evaporator would go out. And since they both are relatively cheap, do both and be done with it.
So day one was remove as much as possible in the cold rainy day. While it was in the breezeway between my shop and house, the wind and cold still worked on us all the day. We managed to remove everything to the fire wall. Amazing how many screws Jeep used on their dash assemblies. I guess they got a great deal on them and put them everywhere. The good thing is they were all most 100% the same type. So no problems getting them mixed up during reassembly.
Now to take the plenum apart to get to the AC Evaporator out. The heater core removes out the top. But only after it is removed from the firewall. And of course everything was deteriorated to the point of crumpled foam dust all over everything. And the amount of debris inside was almost unbelievable. I was really surprised we didn't find any animal living in there. But we got it apart and removed and started cleaning the plenum up to reinstall the new cores.
I looked a the blower fan and it was looking bad. So yes it got a refurbish as well. And since the brushes were in great shape, I cleaned the armature and bushing (no ball bearing in that motor) on the lathe so the shaft and armature was polished back to bright steel/copper/brass/whatever. I regreased the bushings and reassembled it again. Now it looked almost new again...almost!
As you can guess, the different "doors" inside, that channel the Heat, AC, Defrost and Fresh Air, were shot as far as the foam was concerned. So we set out to an arts and crafts type store to see what they may have to replace that foam again. And after searching for what seemed like hours, we found some correct thickness foam and some felt as well. And as we were walking to the check out, I thought about the foamed back headliner material I just bought to recover the sun visors on our Blazer.
We still bought the foam and felt and come home. However, after comparing each for the job, we settle on the headliner foam backed material being how it looked exactly like what they used from the factory. And we cutout those pieces and 3M spray high adhesive glued them in place, materiel side to the doors with the foam exposed to seal better. They looked like factory and we reassembly the plenum with everything refurbished inside now.
The reassembly went pretty much a freeze and we only took us about a couple hours, if that. I was impressed how fast it all went back together. And equally surprising was everything worked again after refilling the cores and bleed off the air. And NO PARTS left over...go figure!
And it was surprising to feel the heat and air (that was cold) work like they were supposed to work again. Now the grandson can drive to school with heat in the mornings.
Not the usual Thanksgiving weekend type idea, but you have to do what you have to do. I understand the either of those jobs can cost $1000 dollars or more excluding parts. And if you have never done one before, it feels like that amount of labor too. But that wasn't our first rodeo and we kind of knew what to expect going in. Just a different vehicle this time. I really think they start with a heater core, and build the entire vehicles around them.
You all have a great day, more boat work to come...
