One more Q, this time for the Fairmont Heater core.

[Dugzy33]

My 78 Fairmont Futura needs a heater core.
It came with ac from the factory.
I guess that means I need to pull the dash to get to it?
I remember seeing a tech article somewhere on how to do this without pulling the whole dash out.
I think there were pics too.

Any hints, links, or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[Marz]

My 78 Fairmont Futura needs a heater core.
It came with ac from the factory.
I guess that means I need to pull the dash to get to it?
I remember seeing a tech article somewhere on how to do this without pulling the whole dash out.
I think there were pics too.

Any hints, links, or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

I've replaced the heater core on every FOX I've bought. The 78 and 79 Fairmonts, the 81 Zephyr, the 85 GT, and a friends 79 Futura. It's not really that hard but it is still a PITA. It could take the inexperianced a day if not more....

A hanyes or chiltons manual will give you a good idea of what to do.

V8only's article will tell you what to do as well.

But, every core change I've done I've never had to removed the dash. Basically you unbolt and drop the steering wheel (if you have a column shift be sure to disconect the shift indicator), disconect the speedo cable, unbolt the dash from the fire wall. disconect the heater core lines in the engine bay before doing any of this... be sure to drain enough coolent from the radiator so no coolent will leak out from the heater lines too. The heater/ac box can be unbolted and moved toward the rear of the car with the AC hooked up... but not as far as you'd like. But with the correct tools you can get the lid off of the box and get the core out.

BTW: be prepared for lots of scratches on your hands and arms. :)

One thing that I did before messing with my cars was to go to the salvage yards and disconect the dash from the firewall in a salvage yard car... jsut to see where all the screws were and to see how long it would take.

I need to replace the core in my LTD LX and will try it out on a salvage yard car first... since the LTD LX dash is different than the F/Z/M.

Jasen

[Dugzy33]

Not many foxes in our yards, many came without ac too.
You are welcome to come to my house and do it for me!!! lol
I just posted this in the main mods forum also to get a variety of input.
Thanks.