I did a search and didnt really find much... I pulled the dash to get the pass. side airbag out, got the dash completely out of the car... I figure while Im in there Ill go ahead and remove the HVAC stuff... How do I go about doing this? Just unbolt all the bolts I can see and start pulling? Any hidden bolts? Tricks or short cuts? While Im back there is there anything else worth pulling out, Im thinking about doing the insulation but I might just wait til the cage goes in to pull all of that. Thanks for any help guys.

Later,
Chris

 

You're in for rough ride.

I would first start by removing everything you can from under the hood. Compressor, condenser, basically all the A/C stuff including all the brackets and hoses.

Honestly we only removed about a dozen bolts from the inside of the car before I went medieval the on the whole damn thing. Just got my foot in there to brace myself and ripped the air box out. Pulling those screws first helped loosen it up a bit, but after ripping it out I was able to see the other dozen screws that couldn't see before.

I'm sure with another 6 hours and a bit more patients we could have dissassembled the whole system without incident, but I thought about the fact that I had a 99.9% chance of never putting it back in and just ripped it all out.

After ripping everything out you finally get to see all the bolts that you probably wouldn't have been able to get to under the hood anyway, at least not without a whole lot of time. There is one large bolt that sits dead in the middle of the firewall that you must wrench on from under the hood, and sits directly behind the intake manifold. That bolt took a lot of patients.

While you're back there you might as well cut out all of the rubber/plastic sound deadening material that sits against the firewall. That's a good 15lbs. If you already have the seats out of the car, you might as well pull the carpet up and rip all the sound deadening material out of underneith it. That is a very time consuming job as well.

I recommend the Billingsly HVAC delete panel if you have the extra cash to spend. Its a nice fit and saves the time of cutting something yourself. You will need six 3/8X1" bolts, nuts, and washers and you can reuse 4 of the bolts that came out of the airbox.

You will also need to plug the vacuum line that I believe is used for the actual controls for the HVAC system.

Good Luck



P.S. If you need to change the #8 spark plug, now is the time to do it from inside the car.

 

Yeah Ive already pulled the AC compressor and condensor and all of that a couple weeks ago, so at least thats out of the way already

Thanks for the info Sounds like Im in for some fun

Ironically enough, I do need to change my plugs. May as well get that done too

 

Another question.. I went to pull the hoses off the water pump housing... Capped them off with rubber plugs that slip over the ends, no leaking or anything... Is it ok to leave it like that for driving, or is it better to connect them with a short piece of hose? Does it hurt it not to have that circulation? Thanks!

 

you need it to circulate. just use the hose you took off the heater core.. cut it at the hoses sharpest bend and then try to wrap it around like a U.

its not that hars to pull the heater, it just takes time

 

thanks havent taken the hose off at the core yet, only at the pump.. Didnt get much accomplished today honestly. Tomorrow its all coming out though, one way or the other

 

How much weight would you say is saved by removing the system minus the compressor?

 

The heater box comes out pretty easily. First one I did I just got angry at it and broke the hell out of it. Second one I did I found all the bolts and it made it a lot easier, took it out in once piece and then dropped it on the ground when I was done.. breaking it in half. Then I just cut a aluminum plate out and put it over the hole from the inside. If I do another one I think I might buy the billingsley plate to save some time.

There is one bolt in the middle of the firewall behind the engine that's easy to miss. The rest are pretty obvious.

 

just dropped mine today. once you get all the obvious ones from the inside...theres 6 in the engine bay. they go around the evaporator core. 2 on the top, one (or two) on the left of it. two on the right of it (I got those from the bottom of the car) and one behind the intake. That one is a PITA. I have my tranny out anyway waiting for a bellhousing so it was easy for me.

once you get all those...it'll pull out from the inside of the car in one piece

 

I just pulled one today as well. You can get to the bolt behind the intake pretty easily with a 10mm open end wrench.

While you guys are under there, you should consider yanking out that big rubber sound pad, and maybe even the lower support bracket. That pad probably weighs 10lbs, and the steel support brack is atleast 5.

BTW, Do any of you know what some of those little black boxes are under there? There are a few of them...One says something about body control All have a tag with a barcode and numbers. If they're for the air or stereo systems, I'd like to pull them out of there. Any clues?

 

The one labeled body control is ur BCM. That controls all ur power options like ur windows and ur locks

 

I removed all of the sound deadening while I was in there... the HVAC removal was actually pretty easy, but the sound deadening and insulation on the driver's side was a pain in the ***, but it still came out with a little work. Had to swiss cheese it up to get all of it out

Im not sure about the boxes either, I just left them plugged in for now.... I need to get back there and remove all the unused wiring, and the wiring from under the hood that isnt connected to anything also.. Anyone ever remove all of the unused wiring or do yall just leave them in and secured out of the way?

 

Thanks WhtLT1. That one's a keeper There's another marked 'throttle position control'. That's for the TCS system, correct? It's not easy to trace the wires wrapped up...

Chris-I pulled about 5lbs of wiring and plugs out from under the dash alone. The Monsoon system is a pretty big wadd in itself. On top of that you have the wiring for the factory seats, the ABS module and wiring under the console, a few things from the console itself, the glovebox light/switch and wiring, rear defroster wiring, the list goes on...Really all you need from the doors back is the wiring for the tail and marker lights (if the car sees the street).

 

Great post guys. Do you just trace the wires back and snip them? I've removed a ton of crap off my crap and there are alot of unused wires. I'm a little scared to start snipping though.