Horror show

[coxfmly]

I have just removed my heater box in order to replace the heater core. Sounds easy, yea right...
I had to remove the fender as well as the inner wheel well. For some reason Chevy installed a rubber cover over the air con system and the blower motor. I can't imagine removing the fender to replace the blower motor! Now that I have the heater box on the work bench I can't find a way to remove the heater core. All of the bolts have been removed but it won't budge. It looks like the rods for the flapper doors are holding the assembly together. Would anyone know how to get the core out of the heater box? Thanks

[john8662]

You get to remove the rod that holds the flapper to the heater box. Once the rod is removed, the flapper is out of the way, and you can now get to the rest of the small bolts necessary to get the heater box fully apart, there are some hiding ones.

Yes, I'll agree on the horror part of this show, I've done it twice, and it doesn't get any easier!

[coxfmly]

The rod seems to be solid in place. Does it pull or twist out? I did notice that the rod is keyed on one side with the arm on the other. I initially tried to pull it out but will give it a harder pull tomorrow. I was wondering if the box could be modified to remove the core without the hassle, access panel or? Thanks

[coxfmly]

John, I pulled the rod out and I was able to get the core out. I will pick up a new one tomorrow and then try to get it back together. I don't want to ever do this one again...... Thanks..

[john8662]

When I first did one of these, I thought there was no way that the rod had to come out, but it does. It's not always easy to get the rod out.

I did the heater core on my 86 pickup just as a preventative measure, because I have the engine out, so it was easy to just remove the inner fender and work from there.