How to Replace a Heater Core in a Dodge Spirit

Hi All,

I searched through all of Google's archives weeks ago to help me and my Dad replace my heater core. I have a 1993 Dodge Spirit, which I guess is similar to a Plymouth, both of which are made by Chrysler. I'm posting here to help those who might search these archives for the same thing. These archives were good, and I'm just trying to repay the favor and save someone the trouble we went through. I guess that's what these newsgroups are all about, right? :-)

We got Chilton's auto guide from the library, and that helped a bit: You should disconnect the negative battery terminal. Otherwise, Chilton's wasn't much help, as it didn't explain its terms (like what something was) or where to find it under your hood or wherever.

We took apart the entire dashboard, including the glovebox, steering column, radio, etc. My car has air conditioning, and we had to disconnect that, too (this was mentioned in Chilton's), by disconnecting a small box under the hood on the passenger's side, and then a hose of sorts on the driver's side (under the hood). These disconnections made the dashboard slide out easily so we could reach the heater core.

There's a metal plate in the center of the car (inside), under the radio. We didnt' know how to get around it to reach the heater core, so Dad bent it. (We bent it back when we were finished w/o a problem.)

We removed the heater core once it was exposed, and installed a new one. 2 hoses (driver's side, under the hood) fed it. We'd bypassed those a week earlier to prevent the "hc" from leaking more antifreeze (it had puddled inside the car). That was great, but there was no heat, and only cold air came out (CONSTANTLY, I might add!). This might be great in July, but it's rough in September!

We replaced the hc and had to work backward to reconstruct the dashboard, etc. Dad's been repairing the family's cars for 30 years, but even he forgot where things went! My advice: Buy a Polaroid camera w/lots of film, and document things that way to help yourself put things back together. (I have l5 screws left over!) We had to go to a junkyard (Dad knows the owner) to see another Dodge Spirit to see how to put things back together, believe it or not. (We'd just forgotten where we'd unplugged things, or which screws fit where, etc.)

It took us 2 solid days to do all of this (the entire wknd), and we saved about $1000. Replacing the hc is easy, I guess, but it's the labor of taking apart the dash, etc., that's so expensive.

Good luck to everyone. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I'll try to answer them if my hotmail account isn't full. Put something like "heater core" in the header so I'll recognize it if your email goes into my junk folder. I scroll through all junk emails before erasing them.

Glenn Allen

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marc anthony
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replying to marc anthony, K Wilson wrote: Heater core

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K Wilson

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