Looks like I'm going to have to replace the heater core on our 93 Regency. Anybody out there already tackled this little exercise. Want to share any advice before I start.

Thanks,
Nick

It is a nasty job. First, are you going to try and replace the core? If so ACME was bought out and shut down and no known replacement cores are available. You can get one made by a radiator shop ($$$). The unit is mounted to the front of the firewall by bolts that go through the firewall from the inside of the coach.
1. Remove the defrost vent covers carefully, save screws;
2. Remove dash cover, you may have to remove the vertical upholstered cover at the front of the door. Pry off the caps and remove the phillips screws;
3. Remove the map pocket from the lower upholstered pane. You will see the blower;
4. Remove the ac outlets screws, pull gently forward and disengage the hoses. You might have to cut the cable ties;
5. Remove the mounting screw from the bottom of the panel. There will be one attaching the panel to the firewall and another holding the flip down floor over the stair. This is a cable that snaps to the edge of the floor panel;
6. The unit is one piece that includes the blower, plastic plenum for the hoses and the evaporator-heater core. A number of screws hold this to the firewall; remove the vacuum hoses and mark each - they are different colors. Set the assembly aside;
7. The unit is now accessible and you can see the mounting bolts, but you now have to remove the ac and heater hoses and the plumbing for the drain faucet and shut off valve. One of the vacuum hoses will run through the firewall and connect to the blend door that works the inside and outside air. Look from the underside of the coach and see if there is a welded plate above the headlight, if there is one you will have to cut it out before the unit will be able to be dropped out the bottom. You will probably have to remove the headlight and bucket to get room to lower the unit.
8. Remove remaining bolts and have a friend do this while you try and reach high enough to prevent the unit from falling out and down.
I could not find anything to attach to the welded plate so it seems unnecessary to replace it.
Reverse the steps to install.
The alternative is another story you and I have discussed previously. I can walk you through that when we meet at Beau Bridge in May or sooner.

Wait! You have a mid-door! Mine is front. You may have a much easier job with more room to maneuver. The steps are the same, just the removal may not be as hard.

Depending on the seriousness of your leak, good 'ol radiator stop-leak stuff is cheap, & worth a try. I prefer the product with little flecks of aluminum in it.

I've had success stopping heater leaks in at least 2 vehicles over the years. One was an older Dodge Class "B". Don't remember what the other one was.

Tom, would the procerdure likely be the same with a 1990 Regency with Cummins 8.3 not Cat? Your description re location sounds familiar. When you say "remove the dash cover" do you mean that whole long top section adjacent to the windshield with the two fans on it?
Guess "STOP LEAK" is worth a try first!
Don

Don: Yes because you have to remove the dash cover to get the front lower panel off. MY fans were not mounted to the dash they are on the bottom of the upper cabinets. The best repair stuff I have seen is Bar's Leak that is sold in most auto parts stores and I even saw it at WalMart. As I added because mine has a front door it has a lot less room to work and more complications. Because of that when we replaced the hoses for the old ac we had to cut through the top of the dash plate where the passenger defroster vent is and reach downward to access the hoses. The we re-welded the plate and reinstalled the defroster mounts. Not exaggerating, a real PITA.

Hi,

I had mine replaced two years ago. A guy named Fulvey in Chicopee MA can custom build you a new core. He did a great job on mine. He hammered out dents on the end tanks and put a whole new core in. It was about 250. Let me know if you want his phone number. rpmuise@mac.com

This morning I took the coach into the shop to have the dash heater core leak repaired. Used a dose of Bars Leak in it and it seemed to work for a while but now the leak is back. There is a small amt of coolant leaking up around the heater core and so she'a gotta come out.
Any further recommendations about removal??
Is it easier just to cut open the steel dash support from the top and reweld it back later or go thru the removal process Tom outlines above??
What about a replacement core, are they still nla or has somebody found a replacement?? Can the old one be rebuilt??
We are heading out to Arizona in a couple of weeks so we gotta find a fix, it's getting cold out!!
Appreciate any help we can get.
Don

I will send you some pictures of my solution - It involves leaving the old unit in the coach and adding a new one that mounts on the floor below the upholstered panel I made new connections to the existing plenum so the air outlets, defroster and heater/ac switches still work. This was a complete re-engineering so you might not want to go through the effort. I spent about $600 for the various parts and a couple of days making new connections from the unit to the existing plenum. (I tired of the old dash ac and used it as an excuse to do a "Tim Allen Improvement" - "Why pay someone $300 for a job you can do for yourself for $1,000?")

This is the unit I installed, a Danhard 920; http://www.danhard.com/evap2.htm

Thanks for the reply Tom. This certainly is a vexing problem everyone with a Regency will face eventually. Hopefully when they get the core out I get get it re-cored or something built. It is way too cold and wet around here now not to have a heater and defroster, plus we have often run with the front furnace on too!
Thanks
Don

can you put shut off valves to bypass the heater core without taking it out?
lenny
PS have a good Thanksgiving

Yes but I just cut the hoses and attached them to the new unit which I placed inside the coach. I just pushed them up through the floor and attached them to the unit. The old unit then is just ballast.

I am not clear about what we are talking about here. Is this heater core a combined hvac set up like in the link below? After finding a way to get this unit out does it then ahve to be torn apart to get the core outof it? Then get it rebuilt or repaired since none are available? What fun!
Don

http://flashoffroad.com/Mainte...eatercoreRebuild.htm

Found this on the web. Is this guy making a replacement core??
http://www.leftysautomotive.com/heatercore.htm

quote:

Originally posted by Tom K:
I will send you some pictures of my solution - It involves leaving the old unit in the coach and adding a new one that mounts on the floor below the upholstered panel I made new connections to the existing plenum so the air outlets, defroster and heater/ac switches still work. This was a complete re-engineering so you might not want to go through the effort. I spent about $600 for the various parts and a couple of days making new connections from the unit to the existing plenum.

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Yes but I just cut the hoses and attached them to the new unit which I placed inside the coach. I just pushed them up through the floor and attached them to the unit. The old unit then is just ballast.

I found these 2 images in our upload site. I am pretty sure that this is Tom's heater core setup.