Hey guys, long time no talk. Recently my heater core in my Ranger took a dump. I need to replace it as it is still cold in CT. How hard are these to replace??? Has anyone done it and can anyone offer any tips and hints??? I need to do this Monday, as it seems to be a heat wave day in ct, a whole 42 degrees.

 

Its a B!tch to replace, you have to pull the whole dash

 

yep, gotta pull the dash.

i would disconnect the steering shaft right near the floor board on the inside, and the wiring at the firewall. from there, there are 1 or 2 bolts on the passenger door jam, and same on the driver's. i can't remember exactly how many. something is telling me two. they are large and gold colored. pop the defrost panel off at the windshield, and there are three or four more bolts up there. pull the a-pillars, and you should be able to slide the dash back and set it on the seats. i wouldn't take anything else apart unless you have to.

 

Hello folks I am in the process of changing out heater core in a 2002 Ranger. It is leaking and the smell of antifreeze is filling the cab alone with smoke that clouding up the windows. I watched about 6 videos on YouTube and got a general idea of the task. I then went to get a estimate to have it changed and the labor cost was $600. I decided to change it out with the help of my 21 yr. old college grandson. I made a numbered list of the procedures I found on line. I also bought a pack of paper cups to label and hold the bolts from each step and kept them in line as I took them out. I won't include each step, you can go to YouTube and get that. Sample of my experience is: 1. Remove cables from batteries. 2. Drain anti freeze and water from engine. Now step 3 thru 1,000,000. Taking trim off seems ok. Taking some cable connectors loose was a bit tricky. You just have to work at it slow. Some nuts and bolts are hard to get to. I did buy a trim release kit which was cheap and a retainer puller to pop the button retainers. Good lighting is a must. I have a Quartz light stand with 2 fixtures. Flashlights, big and small. Socket set standard and metric. What I have now is a dash that is pulled away from fire wall. I cannot pull heater core assembly out far enough to get to the top bolts. I have removed all bolts under the hood, I thought. My next step is to remove the fender liner which is located in the fender well of the passenger front tire. This will give me access to one more bolt I forgot to remove and I hope this will allow me to pull the heater core assembly back far enough to remove the old core and install new. I will update as I go forward. So far I have spend 4 hours. I suspect another 4 to finish job. Don't know yet.

 

Yes, it is one long disassembly to change the heater core on 1995 and up Rangers

One thing to do so it lasts longer is to rotate heater hoses at the firewall every 2 years or so, this reverses the flow thru the core, pushing out any larger bits, that can block passages, so they are pushed out the way they came in

Coolant has anti-corrosion chemicals, these only work when they are in contact with the metal parts, when a passage gets blocked, then no flow of coolant and no corrosion protection, so over time it will corrode and then leak
Same happens in radiators but you can't reverse flow in them, but you can in the heater core

Also change coolant of course, green is every 2 years, red or yellow is every 5 years, "lifetime coolant" is 5 years, thats the warranty, the "lifetime"

 

OK day 2. Pulled fender liner on passenger side to access one nut. Didn't find it after 45 minutes jacking up truck and removing tire and inner liner. Went back under hood and found a hidden nut behind the AC lines on the fire wall. Very hard to get to. One problem is the nuts that are under hood are on threaded studs. On some of the studs there is a nut next to fire wall then the AC box clips on the same stud then another nut/washer on that same stud. Summary: when you remove the first nut/washer from one of the 4 studs look to see if there is another nut located behind the first nut. A lot of time was wasted looking for what was holding the heater core housing inside cab from pulling back far enough to access the 5 bolts on top the core housing. Have a couple of short pieces of 2x4 handy so you can brace the dash assembly up while you work on the replacing the core. You can lay it on the seat but watch out, there are some sharp edges. Once all the nuts are off the core housing, inside under dash and under hood you just have to fight the housing to get it out far enough to pull old core. Clean out the inside area where the core is located. install new core. Now it takes a act of congress to get the two water line pipes back in the hole and on the studs, and the duct lines lined up, takes 2 people to lift in place. Make sure to keep the process of removal of trim so when you put it back you won't have to remove any to get a section of trim on that was suppose to be over or under lapped. Happened to us. When putting trim back on the dash behind steering wheel you will have to attach the battery slightly so you can lower the gear shift handle in the down position. Helps when installing trim. After 6 hours we were ready to check petcock to make sure it was closed. Put new 50/50 anti freeze in. Reconnect battery(screws on battery were corroded so bad we damaged positive bolt so bad had to go buy a new nut and bolt for that. Ran heater for 15 minutes checking for leaks. No leaks, hot defroster, hot heater, no smell of anti freeze. The only thing left is to clean up and put 1000 tools back in tool box. Too tried tonight. I quit for now but feel great knowing the job is done.

 

Thanks for the how to