Anyone with some good thoughts on this? Starting the job tomorrow. Been without heat for two years.

 

there was a write up i think on this site that i used when i did mine... its not a simple in and out deal but def do-able i know u have to undo a plug or two on the firewall driver side and drop the colum to pull the whole dash out..

 

i did it a month or so ago and i will never do it myself again. my friend counted and it was 140 screws to get the dash out.

but if you still wanna do it, i would suggest getting new hoses that go into the heater core (they are on the engine side of the firewall, not sure what they're called or their part number) i tried to re-use the old quick connectors but lost a white washer and the thing was spraying fluid everywhere. i took it to a shop to have them fix it cus i was tired of dealing with it and thats what they did. would have saved me a lot of trouble to do it right the first time.

also, i would go ahead and replace the blend door while you're in there. its a common problem in our 97-03's and its a piece of cake to fix once you've got the dash apart. mine was cracked but i didnt want to leave my truck apart for any longer to wait on a part to come in. it broke about two weeks later and i have been without heat since mid-october or so. im gonna take it in to the shop and have them fix it over the break.

the writeup is in the how to section and it is precisely accurate and will do fine. just make sure you set the temperature to whatever it says to set it to. and you have to at least set the ignition to the on position when you set the temperature or else it wont do you any good. pm me if you have any more questions.

 

Took me roughly 10 hours with a friend helping, ran into a few small hangups though. I highly recommend getting a new blend door. Google heater treater, there's a video explaining how to remove the blend door through the glove box for you there sharpshooter109. (might save you some serious cash, I was quoted $800 for a new core at the dealership)

 

I replaced mine on my 97. I have disassembled the dash plenty of times before, so I had it changed in about 5 hours or so. Bad thing was, my blend door actuator went out about a week later, so I got to rip apart more to replace it. I would change the blend door actuator while you have the dash apart for the heater core. Just my .02.

 

How did the cover over the air bag on passenger side come off on your 97? Mine will not come off.

 

for the firewall hoses, i just cut those fittings off and used hose clamps.. worked like a charm..

 

theres actually a pretty good video on you tube on how to do it.. its for an expedition but should be the same. im just tryin to get through winter with mine because i have no garage. i just hope it dont pop.

 

the cover for the passenger airbag stays with the airbag. There are screws below that airbag that allow it to be removed as one.