My Barrs leak termporary treatment is getting me by but I have purchased a new heater core and am getting my psychie up to installing it. I can not see the hose connections at the firewall. There appears to be a steel piple welded to the body that has a heater hose attached to up upper left. Am I going to get lucky and find that the hoses attach to the heater core on the passenger side of the firewall or is this take stuff off and skin knuckles work? Thanks.

Tom Taylor

 

BTDT. The heater core's feed tubes stick through the firewall and the hoses attach to them at the firewall. You will need the Ford special tool to release the connectors there but once you have them off, the core comes out from the passenger footwell in a very few minutes. Installation is a breeze.

The hardest part of the job is getting the connectors to release. Its a tight area to work in right there at the firewall. I wasn't able to do it without the tool.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

I got my heater core for $30 at Advance Auto. If your 94 is like my 95 conversion van than you'll need to either buy the $75 disconnect tool set for the heater hose connectors or do as I did and get some big 90-degree needle-nose pliers. Got mine at harbor freight for $5. You'll need the two plastic connector pieces for the hoses. Got mine at the local dealership for $8 just to make sure they were the right ones as they are two different sizes! You WILL probably break the old plastic connectors so get them. My core was accessable from the passengers footwell. Remove all the plastic housing. My heater hoses were accessable from under the hood after removing the engine air-intake snorkle. It is a mystery to me as to why Ford would make the firewalll end of the heater a connector type fitting and then have the other end of the hose use a cheap wire pinch clamp! It IS going to cost you some skinned knuckles as these vans always do. Good Luck!

 

Everyone: Thanks for the info. I remember now dealing with the connectors but did not care about breaking them as I was installing new hoses. I got a tool off of ebay (4630620647) for $16 and shipping. I got the heater core wholesale from NAPA so should come out okay.
Again, thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.
Tom

 

Ebay vendor was fast as I bid Friday, won Saturday, paid by paypal and had tool today via USPS. It is a Performance Tool number W83108 and comes with the compression fork for two size hoses for Ford and Chrysler. Did not cost the $90 some quoted as I bought it and had it shipped for less than $20 or so.

Tom Taylor

 

When I did my heater core on my 1992 E150 I opened the heater box and bent back the old core enough to get a sawsall in to cut the old tubes off. I then pulled the tubes out the front of the van by the heater hoses. It was a lot easier than the correct tool that I had fooled with. I went to Ford and obtained new heater hose pop-on connectors. Reassembly was a breeze.

 

I know, i know this post is 5 years old.
But before i did my heater core, i searched and this post is what i came up with.
Too bad i was too stupid to read the whole page.

The sawzall method is by far the way to go. I didn't see your post before because i didn't scroll all the way down.
Went to my buddies shop got the tool.
Came home, took it apart, fiddled with the tool for about 2 minutes then realized if the heater core is bad (and mine was visually) makes no sense to do anything but break out the sawzall.

A couple words to the wise for the heater core change.
Get new connectors, o rings and teflon bushings.
But shop around ford whacked me $52 for the pair, and i get my stuff at 10% above cost.
Real price was like $80. Crazy since i only payed $50 for the heater core.
Secondly, insert the bushings, o rings and connector on the HOSE not the core hard lines.
Something i learned the hardway dropping an o ring.

As i said i know this post is old, but if i came up with it in a google search (already a memeber here) that means someone else will come up with it to.

 

I replaced my '00 blend door and motor, thought while I was already in there the heater core too---235K miles at the time. Like already mentioned the Quick Connect fittings were tough to release. Replacing the lock tabs and O rings cost me like $30 with my Ford discount but they might be found cheaper.

Honestly were I to do this job again on my own vehicles I'd simply cut offf the fitted hose Quick Connects and use old fashioned worm screw clamps. There are barbs on the heater core tubes allowing this step. Its a work around solution and IMHO a lot less hassle.

The Sawzall advice has me wondering how different the 97 and later firewalls are from the 96 and earlier model E vans?