AMC Eagle Den Forum
The Shop => Under the Hood & HVAC => Topic started by: vangremlin on December 28, 2013, 09:43:39 PM
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So right in the middle of a cold snap a couple weeks ago my heater core sprung a leak and started dropping bright green coolant on my passenger footwell. Because I needed to keep driving the car and had to order in the new heater core, the first thing I did was get a 5/8 to 3/4" adaptor, pull the hoses off the heater core and join them together using the adaptor. I now had a car, but no heat.
I pretty much followed Jurjen's excellent write up in the Eaglepedia, and have a few comments below based on my experience. My car does not have A/C, so it may be different for those cars.
- There are three spots where the heater box attaches to the firewall, two by the fan opening, and one right behind the valve cover.
- My car had four cables that attached to the heater box: fresh air vent, amount of heat, heat on/off, and defrost.
- I ran into difficulty pulling the box out because the bottom caught on the carpet, and also on some wires I had installed for some additional lighting.
- When reinstalling the box, it was helpful to get it kind of lined up from the inside, then go to the engine compartment where you could reach in through the fan opening to further align the box and pull it forward.
- Getting the bolt through the hole that is right behind the valve cover was the most difficult.
The basic process went pretty smoothly. The things that slowed me down included making new foam seals for the box (the weatherstripping I bought from Lowes must have been old because it was impossible to get the backing paper off in one piece), one of the cables popped out of the clamp holding it to the heater controls so I had to pull the radio pod out to put it back in place, and, when re-installing the radio pod I broke the ground wire off the glovebox switch, so I had to solder that back together.
I did this swap at the same time as I installed a new radiator. Once I got the new radiator in place, I fired up the car - no heat :banghead:. But I followed Jurjen's directions to pull the top hose off the heater core to bleed out the air, and now all is well. Nice warm car, just in time for the 14 degree temps and snow tonight.
After I was done, I found the following link in one of anrkii's posts, which gives additional helpful info:
http://www.skidmore.edu/~pdwyer/amc/eagle/heater.htm
Here are a couple pics:
Not to hard to spot where the leak was coming from
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/brilliantd/kammback/IMG_00000679_zps10bcc9c6.jpg) (http://s62.photobucket.com/user/brilliantd/media/kammback/IMG_00000679_zps10bcc9c6.jpg.html)
Old vs New. You can see the new one isn't as wide as the old one
(http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/brilliantd/kammback/IMG_00000681_zpsd312e159.jpg) (http://s62.photobucket.com/user/brilliantd/media/kammback/IMG_00000681_zpsd312e159.jpg.html)
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Glad the job went well. I sure miss the old days when AMC heater cores were easily accessible from under the hood.
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Glad the job went well. I sure miss the old days when AMC heater cores were easily accessible from under the hood.
I was talking about that with someone yesterday. It would make life so much easier if the heater cores were under the hood, and not just on AMC's!
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I did one on a Ford once where you had to remove the passenger side fender. Talk about fun. At least I was working in a service station (yes, there were service stations that actually fixed cars) where it was warm and we got paid by the hour.
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I just wanted to give everyone an update. Yesterday was the first day I really took Pepe out for some driving. That new heater core works fantastic. Even on the 3 mile drive to work, I was already getting warm air out of it, whereas before it was still freezing cold. Its not a fun job to swap the heater core, but with results like this, its well worth it. I may have to start driving with the windows down even in the winter :rotfl:
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Just sent you a thumbs up for a job well done! Thanks for sharing.
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GREAT!
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Heat is good!
Mine takes forever to get warm, hope its not my heater core going bad!
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The Concord is anemic. I hope it just needs a good back flush. Nothing leaks, now.
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The Concord is anemic. I hope it just needs a good back flush. Nothing leaks, now.
Might want to try a good burping first. It worked inmine plus its rambler mentality
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The Concord is anemic. I hope it just needs a good back flush. Nothing leaks, now.
Might want to try a good burping first. It worked inmine plus its rambler mentality
Its been burped, and everything else is happy. I think its just a plugged up core.
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Ouch that is gonna hurt
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I am afraid when I backflush the leaks will appear. Will just try with plain water at first. Those chemicals do not like 34 year old parts.
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Are we certain its not the rad cap. The one on my ford 150 gave me everything i could think of meaning all was replaced than i replaced the cap again. It now seems towork as of today. It stumpped me and he guys i trust. Just a fyi
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Just sent you a thumbs up for a job well done! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! This is one of those jobs where its easy to get apart, and hard to get everything back together. Which is good, because once you get it apart, you have no choice but to put it back together!!!
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On the Concord? Cap is good.
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I am afraid when I backflush the leaks will appear. Will just try with plain water at first. Those chemicals do not like 34 year old parts.
Better to find a leak while the car is in the driveway than to find it when the leak develops and the windows fog over while cruising the freeway in 80 mph traffic . :eagle:
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Very true.
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Found out my heater core is leaking I think (also found the hose loose and dripping when the engine was off after this, so it may have been squirting it into the car).
Anyone find a cheap replacement that ships to Canada or within Canada? Or an alternative?
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Found out my heater core is leaking I think (also found the hose loose and dripping when the engine was off after this, so it may have been squirting it into the car).
Anyone find a cheap replacement that ships to Canada or within Canada? Or an alternative?
I bought mine from RockAuto. I don't know if they ship to Canada or not.
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With the amount of work to install the heater core, I would recommend not going with the cheapest. Mine started looking recently and looked at many online reviews and couldn't find and bad reviews of the Spectra brand. The replacement gas tank I bought was from Spectra and was a quality piece. Plus, they are made in Canada and not China. I got lucky and found one on Ebay for less than $100, but they only had one.
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I go for trusted brands first, but if I'm in a bind I go for the cheapest ;)
I think what happened is the heater core hose slid off a bit and was leaking fluid into the car. I reseated it and poured some pepper into the radiator, no leaks to be seen now.
Just have to figure how to get that f*ing greasy layer off of my windows from the coolant fog. Sucks even more that it's below freezing and any water freezes to the :censored: window.
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Glad to hear that Pepe is well again, you know I have a soft spot for that car.
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Glad to hear that Pepe is well again, you know I have a soft spot for that car.
Thanks Jurjen!
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Dawn dishwashing liquid works as a degreaser then use winter winshield washer fluid after.
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Dawn dishwashing liquid works as a degreaser then use winter winshield washer fluid after.
Great ideas :) I'll be using them this weekend n_n
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With the amount of work to install the heater core, I would recommend not going with the cheapest. Mine started looking recently and looked at many online reviews and couldn't find and bad reviews of the Spectra brand. The replacement gas tank I bought was from Spectra and was a quality piece. Plus, they are made in Canada and not China. I got lucky and found one on Ebay for less than $100, but they only had one.
I'm in the middle of replacing the heater core on my TV Eagle. I compared the one I bought off Ebay to the original one and they are practically identical. I took a look at the box it came in and thought the box looks old. I noticed under the shipping label was another label with instructions that looked like it was printed a couple decades ago or more. There was also the Spectra label that was over another label. I carefully tried to peel it off and in stuck pretty good to the old label tearing most of it off, but I was able to see part of the AMC symbol and part number. So either Spectra is the original OE supplier and this was a left over from years ago or someone put a Spectra label on it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/svoman2300/AMC%20Eagles/2015-12-13_09-29-44_431_zpslf7qftgr.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/svoman2300/media/AMC%20Eagles/2015-12-13_09-29-44_431_zpslf7qftgr.jpg.html)
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Now that's pretty cool! Hope the install goes well Eaglefreek!
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I just did this replacement and did not put any kind of foam rubber around the heater core. I wanted to get it done and was in a hurry. I should have done it, but I've had not issues. I thought it might rattle around. Nope no problems. Just food for thought if you have to get the job done and don't have any foam rubber.
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Okay, y'all. I believe the PREFERED method is to restart the old one rather than start another one on the same subject. I have one that leaks & have called a couple places for ESTIMATES. These people are outta their :censored: minds!!!! Can I ask y'all what they charge where you are? Most shops around here are $100.00 - $125.00 PER HOUR!!!!
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$150cad per hour.
The eagle is so :censored: easy compared to my last car I just did it myself and had the box out in 45 minutes. You mentioned you have AC so I believe the air box splits in two so you don't have to flight the plenum going up the middle of the dash.
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$150cad per hour.
The eagle is so :censored: easy compared to my last car I just did it myself and had the box out in 45 minutes. You mentioned you have AC so I believe the air box splits in two so you don't have to flight the plenum going up the middle of the dash.
What MIPS said about the AC box is true. I had to replace the core in my two door sedan which has air and it was no more difficult that on the Kammback, which is heat only. In fact easier because it was the second time Eagle I had replace the heater core on. There is a very detailed write up somewhere on the Den of how to loosen up the dash so you can pull out the heater box.
Good luck!
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This may help...
http://amceaglesden.com/guide/Heater_Core_Removal
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This may help...
http://amceaglesden.com/guide/Heater_Core_Removal
That's the one I was thinking of. Thanks for the link Trooper!
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Here's a photo when I had mine out. You have to take most of the screws out of the dash but it was entirely possible to remove and reinstall without pulling everything.
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/New%20Bucket/.highres/IMG_3805.jpg)
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Thanks for the info. & pics. everybody! That's kinda what I was expecting (& HOPING not. I can see why they want BUN¢E$ of $$$. I STILL think they want too many.