[chrisjep97]

im in the process of doing this right now on my 97 tJ. this write up is a better help than my alldata printout by far!!

[cr2000xj]

I changed mine but now it seems like the compressor "struggles" for about 10-15 seconds before it starts running correctly. Makes a lot of noise and kinda vibrates the jeep. The low pressure line shakes like mad when it does this too. Anybody make sense of this? Is my compressor taking a dump now?

[JoBo]

Originally Posted by cr2000xj

I changed mine but now it seems like the compressor "struggles" for about 10-15 seconds before it starts running correctly. Makes a lot of noise and kinda vibrates the jeep. The low pressure line shakes like mad when it does this too. Anybody make sense of this? Is my compressor taking a dump now?

Did you recharge it or have it done? Did you replace the small aluminum line from the condensor coil to the evaporator coil? It has a filter in it along with a expansion thing.

[jeep-noob]

nice write-up man, thanks for taking the time
Still hoping to see some pat numbers for the foam or some working alternate methods for foam.
After reading this i will just do the heater core as well and replace the dryer.

[Greenz]

Just completed this. Thanks for the write up and pictures.

A couple of things to note:
- used the lower heater hose to connect to thermostat housing creating a loop minus the heater core. This allowed me to continue driving without adding an elbow connector.
-I too had the sweet smell in the cabin over the cold months. I thought it was the heater core leaking a small bit. I didn't think freon had a smell. After getting the Evap core out, I smelled the styrofoam that the Evap sat in(mine was not as bad as the pictures. it had the same sweet smell. Could be a reaction of the oil and styrofoam that makes the smell.
-I used a blacklight to inspect for freon leaks. Aparently there was dye in the system. The only area that lit up was on the Evap core. All other areas were good.
-Wear safety glasses when disconnecting A/C lines. PAG100 burns the eyeballs. Yes I checked for pressure first. There was no pressure on the system yet it still shot out the accumulator.
- ACkits.com is full of usefull information.
- Replaced, EVAP core, heater core, Accumulator, liquid line w/orifice tube.
- checked the new heater core by hooking it up to the heater hoses before installing in the cabin. New Heater core from Rock Auto looked horrible, but it had no leaks.
- Lots of work, lots of money, not sure if it's really worth it....................
- Washed all the dash parts berfore reassembly. looks good and it's cool now.

[kadetklapp]

Originally Posted by Greenz

Just completed this. Thanks for the write up and pictures.

A couple of things to note:
- used the lower heater hose to connect to thermostat housing creating a loop minus the heater core. This allowed me to continue driving without adding an elbow connector.
-I too had the sweet smell in the cabin over the cold months. I thought it was the heater core leaking a small bit. I didn't think freon had a smell. After getting the Evap core out, I smelled the styrofoam that the Evap sat in(mine was not as bad as the pictures. it had the same sweet smell. Could be a reaction of the oil and styrofoam that makes the smell.
-I used a blacklight to inspect for freon leaks. Aparently there was dye in the system. The only area that lit up was on the Evap core. All other areas were good.
-Wear safety glasses when disconnecting A/C lines. PAG100 burns the eyeballs. Yes I checked for pressure first. There was no pressure on the system yet it still shot out the accumulator.
- ACkits.com is full of usefull information.
- Replaced, EVAP core, heater core, Accumulator, liquid line w/orifice tube.
- checked the new heater core by hooking it up to the heater hoses before installing in the cabin. New Heater core from Rock Auto looked horrible, but it had no leaks.
- Lots of work, lots of money, not sure if it's really worth it....................
- Washed all the dash parts berfore reassembly. looks good and it's cool now.

You are brave and bold sir. I have to tackle this in September or October and I'm looking forward to it about as much as one looks forward to a vasectomy.

[kadetklapp]

Originally Posted by bret4

I'm working on mine right now. I didn't want to remove the whole dash so I am doing what another guy did. I removed the glove box and cut the plastic around the evaporator. Then I cut the lower part of the dash in about the center where the glove box mounted. Now there is clearance to get the core out. The core hung up on the flared tubes on the engine side where the tubes go through the rubber in the firewall. I crushed the tubes with vise grips to make it easier to pull the core out. To get the new one in I am going to cut the holes a little bigger to make it easy to push them through the firewall. After that I'll just seal them with some RTV. Being a cheap way out I am going to just use foam rubber weather strip on the new core in the same places the old core had a foam seal on it. There was Styrofoam on the bottom of the old core that fell apart when it was removed. I think I will just use more foam weather strip in the bottom where the foam was.

It's still a bit of work but there is less chance of forgetting to plug a wire in. Also less chance of breaking some plastic dash parts pulling them apart. Jeep really screwed up making this thing. It wouldn't have taken much to make an access panel to get this thing out. Someone should make a cover to seal the hole after you cut the air box to remove the core. Bet they would sell a bunch of them.

I'm sure doing it the way I am doing it isn't for everyone. It's the hack job way. I just couldn't see taking the whole dash out of my jeep. It's old enough that it didn't hurt that much to take a saw to it. It also beats the $900 the shop wanted to do the job. And you know they would have found more things to replace in the A/C system to get that price up even more.

Were you able to get it done successfully? I'm looking for the easy way out here. Why? Well, yes, it get's extremely cold in Indiana in the winter, and I don't want to go thru that again, but for goodness sakes I paid $1700 for the Jeep and it's not worth the heartache and effort. My power locks don't even work, so I'm sure yanking on harnesses and other stuff will result in more fun problems.

I already hacked on the heater box to pull the blend door, I have no problem cutting more of it out if it means saving about ten hours of labor.

**Edit, looks like you did that for the evap. I'm wondering if it's not possible to do with the heater core since it's more towards the trans hump.

[Greenz]

Originally Posted by kadetklapp

You are brave and bold sir. I have to tackle this in September or October and I'm looking forward to it about as much as one looks forward to a vasectomy.

Thank you, but it's not really that hard. Just take your time. Be gentle with the plastic parts as they become more brittle with age and UV light damage. Having this write up and pictures demystified the process quite a bit.

I lived most of my life in Indiana. Yes the winters are cold there so if you're going to do this job, don't wait to late.

Using the defrost turns on the A/C so that dry air is clearing the windows. I suspected something was wrong during rainy season when the defroster took forever to clear the windows (really noticeable on the door windows).

[JoBo]

Originally Posted by kadetklapp

**Edit, looks like you did that for the evap. I'm wondering if it's not possible to do with the heater core since it's more towards the trans hump.

I left my dash hanging on the drivers side and totaly removed the heater box so I can't say for sure. But the heater core has long angled pipes that might hinder removing it through a hole you would cut

[BrunoS]

this is a great writeup.

Having done many years wrenching and making a living fixing everything and anything properly, I've learned this important fact:

Anything made in a factory is pretty much clearly not designed for ease of taking apart. "Reverse" assembly is painstaking labor and involves lots of possible damage to each part you take apart and put back together.

Here's what I suggest:

Go to junkyard. Bring battery powered dremel tool with bits. Surgically cut an access panel in the heater plastic box assembly until you have a proper sized access door. It would take a few bigger and bigger cuts until you have the shape and size correct. Take a photo with measurements on where those final, correct size cuts are.

At the junkyard, now hack or take out the evap core and heater core through your access panel you made. Take a few more photos. You may have to hack or trim mounting points that the cores hang off of.

Once you decide to do this on your jeep, go buy a new evap and heater core. Reading from these many threads...better replace both at the same time.

Using your access panel cut points, use your dremel to make your own access panel in your precious jeep. Remove your old parts, install new ones, and then either borrow or buy a plastic welder from Harbor Freight and "re-weld" your carefully cut plastic access panel. The plastic welder is a wonderful tool for repairing broken plastic pieces of trim that are irreplaceable. (Just do the weld on the backside of broken piece)

That should eliminate the entire dash ripout job that while perfectly doable for those with time/garage/skills... is the stopping point for many of us. By making an access panel....your jeep is driveable until you really dig deep.

I don't get to junkyards much in socal, and jeeps are hard to find....Most are still on the road!

[Greenz]

Originally Posted by xjguy98

New Evaporator installed:

I don't think it would be easy(Im sure someone here has done it though) to cut out a slot for the heater core. There is a screw that goes through the top half of climate control plenum into the heater core bracket(near hose connectors) Screw access would be right up against the firewall. Seems to me that screw helps secure the copper pipes from vibrations. If you hack it out, it might cause the new heater core to fail sooner.

[jeep-noob]

Dont hack or cut stuff just do it the right way and take out the dash. You don't have to remove the steering column, just take the two nuts off and lower. Take off the turn indicator cause it might break when the dash is slung up and out of the way. Just did mine this weekend and got to add a kill switch and 10 gauge wire through the firewall for an amp. Didn't have to completely remove the center console either, just slide it back and pull the e-brake all the way up. I did not pretest the heater core (would have been a good idea) and it did look like crap out of the package and there was not enough room to add the foam strips on the sides, oh well. I ended up cutting my heater core hoses(they would not come the frick off) but they are still long enough to re-use, wewt saved $35 bucks there. I bought my evap from techchoiceparts.com full made-in-china cheap-skate product, hopefully it work, there ebay page has all positive reviews, probably swap it out again in a few years for one that costs more than $75, oh well.


Wut did you do this weekend?

[kadetklapp]

Originally Posted by jeep-noob

Dont hack or cut stuff just do it the right way and take out the dash. You don't have to remove the steering column, just take the two nuts off and lower. Take off the turn indicator cause it might break when the dash is slung up and out of the way. Just did mine this weekend and got to add a kill switch and 10 gauge wire through the firewall for an amp. Didn't have to completely remove the center console either, just slide it back and pull the e-brake all the way up. I did not pretest the heater core (would have been a good idea) and it did look like crap out of the package and there was not enough room to add the foam strips on the sides, oh well. I ended up cutting my heater core hoses(they would not come the frick off) but they are still long enough to re-use, wewt saved $35 bucks there. I bought my evap from techchoiceparts.com full made-in-china cheap-skate product, hopefully it work, there ebay page has all positive reviews, probably swap it out again in a few years for one that costs more than $75, oh well.


Wut did you do this weekend?

I appreciate your pics as I wanted to see what kind of clearances I'd get if I didn't remove the column or console

When this Indiana heat dies down I'll be doing this.

[j_dynomite]

Finished this process a few weeks ago with the help from this write-up and a Haynes Manual***(FSM is more thorough but more time consuming and difficult to navigate for this repair)... a couple of things.

Definitely take your front seats out….It takes 10 minutes and you will appreciate the extra room you have to maneuver around.

Since the blower only comes in contact with air, I would not seal it with any rtv or other bonding agent, less you want to deal with it if you ever have to replace either coils again.

If you have an auto transmission (I think manuals just have a release tab) there is a key release cable that runs from your shifter to your steering column, it is connected to your steering column via a tabbed harness...the purpose of this is to keep your key in the ignition while your transmission is in any position other than park. Mine was a PITA to get out. **I would recommend after you have access to all of your harnesses on the steering column, throw your key in the ignition, turn your key to start so you can move your shifter, put the car in reverse, N, or Drive, and then take the cable out of the harness, it puts tension on the cable and pulls the spring in the harness and makes taking it out much easier….and it will keep you from thrashing the tab and rest of the harness…which I did and had a nice little duct tape repair to deal with**

The biggest problem for me was taking out the steering column. I ended up pulling out the column with the linkage past the coupler bolt, clear into the engine compartment….it made it more difficult to put back in, but it worked.

I would recommend keeping all of your fasteners organized and labeled.

Put the right amount of oil in the AC components you replace....too much and you don't get the optimal cooling effect...too little and you can damage your compressor.....I asked an HVAC tech and he said a generic number is 2 oz for every component you replace. Don't take my word on it, do some research and put in the recommended volume***also if you’re AC system has been stagnant for awhile or infiltrated with ambient air, you should replace the dryer/accumulator. There is a desiccant bag that can bust and send desiccant into your line, destroying your compressor.

Replace both hoses and all the clamps to your heater core....it'll cost you $25 and you won't have to worry about whether or not your hose is going to leak at the clamp.

Make sure you tighten all of your wiring harnesses properly during assembly....One of my harnesses was not tight enough and I ended up spending another 30 minutes trouble shooting the problem.

All in all, it was more labor than technique, this write up definitely helped....take it slow the first time and after you do it once (god forbid you have to do it again, or help a friend) you could probably have the job done in half the time.

[jeep-noob]

Reassembly was a breeze did it in less than one hour. so far two days with cold AC woohoo!