I am replacing the heater core in my '82 in the near future.Looking at what is involved it looks like part of the dash needs to come out? Would it be much more effort to replace the speakers in the dash while i am at it?

secondly where is a good place to get a heater core? Ecklers? I am also repainting the car and would like to buy true-flex bumpers for the front and rear, where is a good place to buy these? I live in florida so when in doubt I just get my stuff from Ecklers.

 

The dash speakers can easily be replaced with the dash in place, but 4x6s and that location are both horrible for speakers.

 

This is where I got my heater core. They say they are made in the USA.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/78-79...#ht_1173wt_732

 

I took my new heater core to the local radiator shop and had it pressure tested and the tubes reinforced. $35 was worth the piece of mind regardless of where it was made. Just my two cents.

 

I picked up mine from Rockauto. I only had to remove the glove compartment and the center guage stack on my 82. Not hard but time consuming...

 

I paid big bucks a got mine from the dealer.

Its not to bad of a job. Whole dash does not have to come out.

Start by removing the glove box and vent pipe on that side. Plus the side panel on the passenger side of the consol.

Drain fluid. Get under the car and undo the claps on the 2 hoses. Try to pull them off. If that fails cut the hose as close to the core as possible. Remove all the left over rubber.

Undo all the bolts. All bolts that hold the core box in place are on the inside exceprt for one. One needs to be undone on the engine side.

Remove the vent pipe that attaches to the box from the vent distribution apparatus located behind the gauge cluster.

Disconnect the various lines that go to the core box. The core box comes up and out with a twisting motion. You'll figure that out.

Replace the core in the box.

Here is where it gets tricky. The vent pipe comes out easy on removal. It does not go back in so easy on install. To get enough wiggle room I had to remove the gauge cluster and the vent hose on the driverside. I supect you will too.

Once in attach the rubber hoses from underneath.

While in there you can see the blower motor. Vaccum out any debri from the years.

Twigg the odd thing while you have it apart. maybe missing some foam on a hose or two. Maybe lube the odd hinge.

Never done it before? Will take you about 4 hours. Second time around 2 hours max maybe 3.

Jim

 

I found the link I was looking for. This should help

http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/heatercoreremoval.pdf

 

looks like that one on ebay is cheaper than ecklers or wilcox, how long has yours been in there bruiser? ecklers also has a a/c/heater seal kit should i be interested in that?

 

4 years. Get the seal kit.

 

I priced from autozone and oriellys about 35-40 bucks for my 79 don't know if they are good or not. Seems like the corvette vendors are abot 140 bucks. I wonder if this is a case of you get what you pay for? Fixin to replace mine also, before i put my interior back together. The cold air in the winter don't defrost you window very well.

 

I am not sure if they are better or worse. What i found was the aftermarkets were not exactly the same. Pipes were configured differently. You can't bend them they will break.

Jim

 

Yes Sir; Yes the Service manual says, on the 1982 that you can lift the dash up & out enough to get it changed. Believe me, that dash is 32 years old. If you are not careful it will break the corner right off the dash. The first one I did, I had to replace the dash. The second one I just took out the gauges, all of them & lifted the dash out, it has two clips on each side of the defrost vent that you have to slide out of before you lift, Just treat it like glass. Also, buy the seal kit, & a set of hoses, It will save you lots of time & lots of air leaks when it's back together. Give yourself lots of time, take a couple of breaks, It's really pretty easy. I don't know how long it took me, but I did it in a couple of days. Have a ball Gene

 

When I did my 82, I left the dash in and just unscrewed the inside glove compartment. from there I was able to just loosen the dash screws. from there the vents, cables and everything else can be dropped out. Get the seal kit!!!

 

AAHH!!!!! that sucked....lol started saturday morning, worked on it for about 6 hours then finished it 3 hours later on sunday. Mind you I did get a case of "While I'm at it" syndrome.
pulled out all the gauges and a/c vents cleaned all the dust and dirt of everything while i had it apart. lubed the speedo cable, replaced the instrument cluster lens cause it had a crack propagating, and put new a/c seals on all the duct work. And that heater core does NOT come out easily, i was twisting that thing every which way with the dash pulled out a good bit. I replaced it with the heater core from Wilcox, so far it works great I will say the gril is about 1/4 inch shorter than original so the bands that hold it in the heater box are just at the ends holding it, and the pipes run a little bit shorter.

By the time i was done with I ended up with 4 screws...haha...I know where one goes it goes to the plate that connects to the heater door on top of the heater box but i realized i should have attached it before affixing the heater box and there was no way i was getting that screw in, the two screws on there will do. The other three screws I have no idea what they went to???