Heater Core

[Time Travel]

I have a 75 C10 and want to know how hard it is to replace the heater core. Is there something I should lok out for? Is it straight forward? I was givin a price of $300 buck from a shop to have it done. Is that steep? I'm located in S.F. bay area. I know prices are not always the same thru out the country. Any help would be appreciated.

[Zoomad75]

Do you have a/c or not? It's really easy if you don't have a/c. Two nuts on the fire wall side (they are the stamped speed nuts on long studs, cant miss them), One bolt from under the dash on the far outboard side. You can see the bolt if you take your glove box door out. One more little screw holding the box to the defroster outlets (right in the center above the tranny hump). Disconnect the cables and the complete heater box comes out from under the dash.

Once you have the box out there is just one screw holding a wire bail that retains the core in the box. Clean up the mess as it's probably all wet in there and then reverse the order from dis-assembly.

The non a/c trucks are a breeze. I can do mine in less than a half hour now (but I had recent practice too!)

A/C trucks take a little more effort. I havent done one of those on this style of truck.

[Time Travel]

Thanks Zoomad. I do have an A/C truck. How long do you think it would take? No special tools?

[75sierraclassic]

The A/C trucks aren't that bad. I had to replace mine about a year ago. You can definitely do it in a half a day. Its kind of a bear getting all the vacuum lines off and the cable for the hot/cold control, but it comes out pretty easy with a little acrobatics (laying upside down on the seat and what not to get to it).
Undo all the vacuum lines and cables, I think there are 4-5 studs that go through the firewall with speed nuts (carefully remove). Just make sure you remember where all the vacuum lines go.

[bullskeet]

I can tell you that you will have to unbolt the inner fender on the passenger side to get to the bottom bolts. Check out this site http://coloradok5.com/heatercore.shtml. I just did mine two weeks ago and I really don't want to have to do it again anytime soon. Good Luck!

[Time Travel]

Bullskeet,
Thaks for the link. Very helpful info. I'm hoping to have sometime this weekend for the task. I'm tired of these 35 degree mornings. Start to feel like a popcicle.