Joe in NY
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 5, 2014
- Messages
- 938
- Reaction score
- 84
- City, State
- Binghamton, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 Eddie Bauer V8 4X4
Had a hard time finding pics to assist with changing the evaporator in my 2002. Got some pics to try and help.
THIS JOB IS A PITA! Screw Ford for this design... Doing evaps in suburbans is a cake walk in comparison... Especially a Lincoln! (Did a 2006 town car in 3 hours flat a few days prior) The only credit I will give Ford is for using decent plastics. Being very careful I broke a handful of clips in a suburban. The Explorer? Only one: the driver side gutter guard. Not bad...
I made the job a little extra difficult as I installed a remote start. Thankfully I left myself long harness connections.
Tips:
1) You will need a second person for the steering wheel, pulling back the dash, and separating the ac lines.
2) DO remove the steering wheel! Absolutely forget about trying to leave it in place. Just take the one bolt out from the steering shaft and make life easy.
3) Work on this in stages. Not all at once. I spent four days working two hours each day pulling it apart. Time was wasted on fighting the steering wheel before finally taking it out to simplify things and trying to separate the ac lines myself.
4) Put bolts right back where they came from. In many spots once you remove a panel you can put the associated bolts right back in.
5) Remove the blend actuators and open them to see what shape they are in. Mine were pristine with no wear. (surprisingly!) I reapplied the grease to the gear faces, moved gear positions, and cleaned the restive pad to make for a more accurate position reading.
6) You *CAN* replace the evaporator with the HVAC housing remaining in place. I did not do it personally as I feared inaccessible bolts. It turns out you do have access to all the bolts clamping the shell together. However, a couple of them are in very tight spots facing the firewall.
7) Do the easy, literally 10 seconds, air-box filter mod while you're in there. Go to the auto parts store and buy a cabin filter for 1998 BMW 318i. Fits perfectly. Only a slight reduction in airflow.
8) Coming soon...
Pics below
THIS JOB IS A PITA! Screw Ford for this design... Doing evaps in suburbans is a cake walk in comparison... Especially a Lincoln! (Did a 2006 town car in 3 hours flat a few days prior) The only credit I will give Ford is for using decent plastics. Being very careful I broke a handful of clips in a suburban. The Explorer? Only one: the driver side gutter guard. Not bad...
I made the job a little extra difficult as I installed a remote start. Thankfully I left myself long harness connections.
Tips:
1) You will need a second person for the steering wheel, pulling back the dash, and separating the ac lines.
2) DO remove the steering wheel! Absolutely forget about trying to leave it in place. Just take the one bolt out from the steering shaft and make life easy.
3) Work on this in stages. Not all at once. I spent four days working two hours each day pulling it apart. Time was wasted on fighting the steering wheel before finally taking it out to simplify things and trying to separate the ac lines myself.
4) Put bolts right back where they came from. In many spots once you remove a panel you can put the associated bolts right back in.
5) Remove the blend actuators and open them to see what shape they are in. Mine were pristine with no wear. (surprisingly!) I reapplied the grease to the gear faces, moved gear positions, and cleaned the restive pad to make for a more accurate position reading.
6) You *CAN* replace the evaporator with the HVAC housing remaining in place. I did not do it personally as I feared inaccessible bolts. It turns out you do have access to all the bolts clamping the shell together. However, a couple of them are in very tight spots facing the firewall.
7) Do the easy, literally 10 seconds, air-box filter mod while you're in there. Go to the auto parts store and buy a cabin filter for 1998 BMW 318i. Fits perfectly. Only a slight reduction in airflow.
8) Coming soon...
Pics below
