Pine needles in defroster duct

Vacuum it again and then spray Lyson down there with the AC running to kill the smell, it should be OK.

I bet I meant Lysol......

what's wrong with the smell? It'll be just like a pine-scented air freshner lol.

o and by the way, I've disassembled a HVAC unit in an XJ, and it's not easy. You have to remove the whole dashboard. So I'd try everything else before I went for that approach.

On the YJ you manually milk the drain valve under the hood while running water into the vent intake. I don't know what kind of setup the TJ has, but with the vent located in the same place as the YJ it has to have a drain. Make sure that is open.

Those were probably fir or spruce needles. Pine needles would be too long to get in there.

Cheers,

Earle

There is a spray made for A/C, a bit tuffer than Lysol.

Hard to say whether the OP needs to rotorooter their A/C from just the description, depends where the cruft is located. Might be able to just flush it out if there is a good bottom drain added.

Actually Lysol works as well or better and can be used for other things if you don't use the entire can. I think it's less expensive, too, but I haven't looked at prices lately....

Probably, I sure wouldn't recommend taking it apart until everything else has failed...

Let me make sure I have this straight before I go and try this:

I can remove the cowl, stick a hose in the air intake, and flush the crap out of the drain at the bottom down below and to the right of the battery box? I thought for sure this would result in water getting flushed into the passenger side interior, or runi something electrical, or...

Anyway, can I do this? Failing that approach, I guess I'll have to dive in there. At least I've got some instructions on how to remove the heater box now...

Thanks everyone!

-John

Not going to work....

You have stuff all the way inside or you would not have had smoke from the resistor pack trying to burn your Jeep up.

You were extremely lucky!

That underhood drain is for the intake box. The intake for the insides just picks up a bit off the bottom of this box so water doesn't get inside. Putting a hose down there 'will' flood out your insides more than likely.

Putting a hose on the top of the grill will rinse out the box without flooding 'if' you can keep the drain running clear.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile...

OK then, thanks.

Guess I'll have to tear the dash out. :(

BTW - Do you think the resistor pack can get hot enough to start a fire, or did they fail in some way? Should I get a new one?

-John

The resistors are open coils of wire sitting in the airflow to keep them from melting. They get hot enough to burn fuel like needles easily.

If your heater fan speeds still work, the resistors are still good. When they fail, you will only have high on the heater fan.

On my Jeep, I can open the 'fresh' air vent at the floor and dig out leaves and needles or vacuum or blow them out from the bottom. With the grill off the top, a vacuum hose might even fit down there to suck or an air blower to blow the junk out the bottom.

Mike

Hey maybe that is why my heater fan works only high now. If the The resistors have gone bad. This is nice to know.Thanks Mike

99 wrangler 31 inch ( soon to be 33's still picking brand) good year mtr tires warn M8000 winch 2.5 lift (soon to be 4 inch lift still picking brand) skyjacker shocks a lot of lights (winch,hood,bumper, wind shield) Even more toys to come

Some people have an addiction to drink... Some people have an addiction to drugs.... I just have an addiction to Jeeps and their accessories....

Here are a few pictures of my rig

Good luck with your cleaning job. I don't know if this'll work on later models, but on my CJ-7, I put a piece of screen, from a screen door, under the vent cover to keep all but the tiniest things out of there. I've also used pieces of those A/C return duct filters you use in the house. If this will work on a TJ, it should prevent a recurrence of the near catastrophic event. TrailMarker.

Thanks for all the help, and just to keep you up to date:

I removed the resistor pack. It was packed full of soot, pine needles, spruce fir, miscellaneous leaf parts, and crud. Rusty and burned. Bu apparently still working. I think I'll replace that anyway...

...Inside the hole where that pack goes, it was packed *full* of crud. I dug out all I could, but the solidly packed mess extends all the way up and around the heater core farther that I can get a finger. I'm going outside to pull the heater/ac box now. :(

-John

Could you be looking at a nest?

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - G>

Almost certainly. :(

Also, I just figured out I need a special tool to get the A/C lines out. I'm just going to replace everything in that box while I've got it apart - I don't want to repeat this job anytime soon!

-John