hi everyone im goin to be replacing my heater core asap and ive never done this or talked to anybody who has im pretty sure i have to tear the dash apart but other than that im clueless thanks in advance i appreciate it.

 

i put one in my truck last winter and man is it a pain when u pull ur dash apart there are screws or bolts and nuts that will be holding the air ducts onto the dash structure that will be fun to say the least to get out... once i got the old one out and new core started in i ran into a problem with the hard lines on the core so i cut the lines off the core and ran heater hose through the firewall and works well now plus much easier than fightn the hard lines that dont cooperate 100% i have some pics but cant find them

 

You take the whole dash out in one piece not tear it apart. Do yourself a favor, go to the local Autozone or whatever you have there and buy the Haynes service manual for your truck it's only around 20 bucks. It has a good writeup and pics for the job, it's a time consuming job but not that bad. I will also suggest that you go to Dodge and get the 4 plastic inserts that clip into the steel firewall and your top dash screws go into them. Mine fell apart when removed and I remember another thread where someone else had the same problem, of course my local dealer didn't have them so it tied my truck up for a day. You might also want to do the ac evaporator core while in there if you like ac, they go bad also and it might save you from doing the dash twice.

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i was thinking about that but i just dont have the money right now and i need to replace my dash so when i get the money in the future ill replace the dash and that at the same time thanks for the help

 

well i ended up tearing it apart because someone in the trucks past replaced the dash because it was cracked and didnt get things together correctly im guessing so they added a few extra things in... it only took about six hours to do the whole deal

 

24CumminsCowboy,

I can't remember where I found it, but I ran across a thread one time when I was about to change my heater core too. When I did mine, I used a strap and ran it around the dash on the passenger side and tightened the strap to hold the dash after I removed the bolts. I know I had to lower the steering wheel, remove all dash bolts but the dash did not come out of the truck, merely pulled back enough to get to the core and it was a tight fit, but it worked. Check out this

oudive

 

Do we have to drain the A/C system? This cat is talking about draining it and even shows it removed? If were "supposed" to, then I'm not draining mine and will look for another way around it. I have to change out my core as well.

 

i didnt drain mine when i did it just another obstacle tho..

 

If you search there is a very good how-to on this subject by Scottsjeeprolet

I will try to find it for you. I need to do mine too but havent been able to muster up the gumption

 

It makes it easyer if you drain the a/c then you can take the whole heater box out of the truck and clean it out. Ofcourse I had to undo ours anyway cause I was replacing the evaporator. Replaced the heater core while I was in there tho.