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Well, after reading up on the "short cut" to heater core replacement I decided to give it a go especially after pulling the console side trim away and seeing that it appeared to have been already done in the past as evidenced by the hose connections on the outlet pipes near the core. Anyway, after getting the drivers seat and steering column out of the way and the side of the heater box stripped I was disapointed to find out that the core will not slide out all the way. The problem is that it won't clear the frame that the steering column bolts to. I never read any reference to that piece, only to remove the steering column. Am I missing something or is there some way to manouver the core to get past it? I don't see any fasteners to remove the mounting frame for the steering column. Any comments or suggestions welcome.
Barcho,
I performed this "short cut" procedure two years ago on my '83 XJ6. My car had the original heater core in it. I was however able to remove and replace the heater core underneath the steering column bracket. It was a tight fit and took some wiggling side to side and up and down but I was able to maneuver the old one out and the new one in. If I'm seeing the problem correctly in your picture you could always cut that top pipe closer to the core if it's in the way.
Good luck.
Thanks for the encouragement Larry, I have the heater core out now. I found the attachment bolts for the bracket that was offering interference (two bolts in the engine bay and another on the firewall accessed through the dash with the speedometer removed) and got that out of the way. Still had interference with the light switch but taking that out finally did the trick. The core is quite a mess, I suspect that it has a very slow leak for a long time. I took it to a rad shop to see if they can recore it.
Well, the rad shop did a good job refurbishing the leaky heater core. They removed the two ends, cleaned it up and re soldered the tubes to the ends. I got it back into place without much trouble other than some consternation over the interference encountered with the upper outlet pipe and the four wires connected to the fan speed resistance piece requiring positioning the core as far left in the heater box tray as possible and even then the wires touch the heater hose joint on the pipe. Fortunately thay have nice plastic end covers to protect the connections. As it is there is no way that the resistance piece can be changed it it fails, without disconnecting the pipes and core cover plate in order to juggle everything arround enough to gain clearance. I noticed a foto elsewhere on this forum comparing the original Jaguar core to what is available as a replacement and it appears as though the original pipe is bent more to provide clearance around the resistance piece. I had thought that my core was an original item but apparently not so!!
Hi Barcho,
If you are referring my thread below, post #89, I discovered that an aftermarket replacement core is not manufactured correctly. Another eye opener is that every parts retailer which offers one, has the exact same product, all built by the same manufacturer, a large country in eastern Asia I believe. You may regret forcing the heater core into position and up against the blower speed resistors, luckily my core is original and doesn't leak. I would not use the aftermarket unit.
Heater Core Woes
