A Hot Detour

So, after reinstalling the carpet, it was time to get back to the original source of trouble - the heater core assembly.

You may recall that I removed the heater core because it was leaking coolant fluid into the pedal area. This is bad - it can lead to my feet getting scalded, but worse, the pedals would get wet and slippery. Not something you want while pressing the brakes to stop and avoid hitting the guy in front...

To repair the leak, I removed the complete heater assembly, and tore it apart. The heater core itself is a small radiator-like heat exchanger, which heats up air with engine coolant. It looked in good shape, but I had it rebuilt and serviced, just in case. I also removed and replaced the valve that controls flow of coolant to the heater core, which is another potential source of leaks.

From Q's House of Speed

As for the rest of the assembly, it is mostly built of plastic, with a pair of metal doors that open and close in order to guide hot air through the heater core, and out to either the car floor (heater mode) or to the front windshield (defrost mode.) A pair of levers control these flaps. Both flaps were rusty, so I cleaned them up and derusted them using Evapo-Rust rust remover. I then applied some primer and a couple of coats of black Rust Oleum spray paint. This should help keep any new rust from developing.

From Q's House of Speed

The top of the box has a rubber gasket that seals and isolates the whole unit. In my case, there was no gasket, so I had to make one of closed-sell foam rubber material. Simple enough.

So, after all this prep work, the box was reassembled, and made ready for installation. The only problem was this: reinstalling the box requires access to bolts that are impossible to reach once the box is in place - unless you remove the dashboard. I also think that, with all the new insulation in place, the carpet is a bit raised, and does not provide enough room for the box to be installed into place - unless you remove the dashboard.

Sigh....

You know where this is going, right?

Heating and Cooling - Things to buy, things to repair.

So, in the process of removing the heater box, I ended up removing the center console and shift boots. In this entry, I'll focus on these two things.

The shifter has three boots:

1. An "outer" rubber boot (right in the picture below), which attaches to the shifter tunnel and the actual transmission case, where the shift lever sticks out. It seals the insde of the car from the outside (lower) part of the car.

2. A "middle" rubber boot (left in the picture below), which mounts on top of the outer boot, providing further noise insulation.

3. The upper vinyl boot, which is the one mounted on the console and is visible to the inside of the car.

The outer and middle boot were mounted incorrectly. Not that it matters, since both rubber boots were torn and pretty badly degraded. Furthermore, the plastic attachment used to mount the middle boot in place is a bit torn up, and needs some repair.

The vinyl boot is also torn up somewhat. I will have to purchase a new one (or maybe upgrade to leather.) These are easily sourced, as well as the rubber boots themselves.

The plastic attachement, well, they are not so easily sourced. I'll probably have to hack something to make it useable again. If I knew how to make fiberglass, or even carbon-fiber parts (gasp!), I would be considering doing something crazy right about now.


The console itself is also in so-so shape. It is made of a plastic shell, covered with thin vinyl, and accented with wood and crome trim. The plastic shell is in usable shape, but the various attachment points are torn up. I will have to hack some attachments in order to bolt it onto the car firmly.

The vinyl cloth is OK, but I suspect I want to actually remove and replace it. This would entail sourcing similar vinyl (not sure where, yet) and gluing it in place. Not sure how to best proceed, yet.

The wood trim looks very sun-faded. Although it still looks OK, I suspect I will want to replace it. Replacing it will involve sourcing some wood veneer (not sure which kind yet,) sanding and varnishing it, and installing the new pieces in place. As far as the chrome trim, I'll probably polish the heck out of it, and call it done.

Again, one can only wonder at how a carbon-fiber replacement (with brushed aluminum trim) would look. I think it would look phenomenal. I really should learn how to make CF parts...

Next up: The heater box comes apart.

Kinks in the plan

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to park the car and pretty much put all my suspension work on hold until the new year. I figured I would not have much time before then, with all the holiday season ongoings and all.

However, I did decide to replace the ignition cables. The old ones were cracked and weird looking. So, I went ahead and replaced them. Really simple stuff, although figuring out how to route them through the engine compartment took me a while - I wanted to get them just right!

Afterwards, I turned on the engine, and let the car warm up for about five minutes. Everything idled well, so I shut down the car, and went to bed.

A couple of days later, I was doing laundry in the garage, and I noticed a puddle of water on the floor. My first though was that the garage roof had sprung a leak. After looking around for a few minutes, it hit me - this could be coming from the car.

Sure enough, it was engine coolant. D'oh!

So, I looked around the engine compartment for a bit, and I figured it seems like there is an issue with the water pump. I also noticed the car was missing the swivel nut on the alternator bracket that is used to adjust the belt tension. Very weird. So, the belt was loose, and the pump (or something in the vicinity) was leaking...

I've also noticed that many bolts tend to be a bit loose - I can easily add torque to many of them. Which leads me to think two things:
a) The water pump is bad
b) the water pump was not torqued correctly, and water/coolant is leaking through the seams.

How annoying!

Since then, I've been buying bolts to replace the missing ones, and have been doing a bit of research on how to proceed. The most mentioned course involves removing the radiator, fan, and pump, in order to ensure the pump is A-OK. I suspect I might buy a replacement pump anyways. I am also considering getting an electric fan, since all parts will be disassembled and all.

And all these repairs will have to wait until after the new year...

And theeeen, I can work on the suspension...
Or on whatever breaks next...