[kadetklapp]

ZOMFG this looks like a royal PITA. I'd just assume drive around with no heat than go through all that garbage. What a crock...

 

[kadetklapp]

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]

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.

 

[kadetklapp]

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:thumbsup:

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