Wet Carpet

[Chuck Lutz]

As they say.. when one door closes another opens. Well, I've solved a number of things this week that have bothered me and I'm happy about those. This afternoon I noticed the paper mats that I've kept on the front floor of the driver's side was wet. I removed them and checked for the source. I didn't find anything except saturated carpets on the drivers side. The moisture isn't just water but in touching it, it feels like coolant.
Isn't the heater core on the passenger side? What could be leaking coolant on the driver's side. It's only on the level area of the floor boards and doesn't seem to be running from above the brake pedal or firewall.
I'm going to get into this deeper in the morning but I just wondered if anyone could fill me in.
Thanks, C

[Barry Wolk]

Yep, it's coolant. When you take it apart you'll see a pretty dumb design, but it's simple to fix. You need to recore that heater. The blower assembly has to be removed from that side. You'll the see about a dozen screws that hold he core cover in place. Remove the cover after draining the system. Remove the heater hoses and extract the core.

I could not find a replacement core so I had the ends taken off of mine and installed on a new piece of core. It wasn't cheap, but should last me for another 50 years.

[Chuck Lutz]

Is the core inside the cabin or under the hood? I've checked the illustrious manual and they show how to rebuild the waterpump but I'm on my own on this one. Are there any drawings around for this? I'm not sure where to begin.

[Barry Wolk]

The blower mounts with two thumb latches and some bolts to the inner fender, under the hood. Disconnect the electrical and remove the fan assembly. Looking through the remaining hole you'll see core. To get to it remove the hoses and the perimeter screws. This will give you access to the core. Remove it, recore it and reassemble it. Took me about two hours.

The core is positioned to that it can't help but leak into the car. I had to dip my padding and carpet in a garbage can full of warm water to rinse out the anti-freeze.

[Chuck Lutz]

Thanks.. I wish you were my neighbor. We'd BBQ. :)

[Barry Wolk]

:):):):):)

[Chuck Lutz]

MarkIIEnt lists a right and left core. Guess that answers which side the heater core is on. LOL
Would I be correct in assuming that the left is on the driver's side? (left, as viewed from inside the car?)

[Barry Wolk]

Yes, but I'm sure it's cheaper to have it recored locally.

[depmike38]

Does the passenger side core leak into the car as well if/when it fails? From what you've said I may just pull both of them out and have them tended to before the car's back on the road. Oh, and something a friend of mine in the used parts business found out when shipping a door to Europe is that when they request left or right they're referring to the car as viewed standing in front and looking back. It was an expensive error.

[Barry Wolk]

I wish I had had your foresight and done both of mine. You know the other will go at an inopportune time. I actually carry a piece of 1/2" conduit and a couple of hose clamps.

I'm trying to recall, are the taps at the top or the bottom relative to their angle mounting? I seem to recall my core being very heavy, probably filled with sludge. After recoring it was feather light.

[Chuck Lutz]

Foresight, is a good thing and as I thinking about the other side while removing the one with the apparent problem. After taking the left core out I've determined that one of the hoses was cracked near the clamp. I think it was like that and not done when I pulled it off the tube on the core. For a bit I had not only the dilemma of doing both cores but another of "do I need to do any at all?
Now, the leak into the cabin was pretty slow and not an event of epic proportion like you might think when a core goes bad. I've always thought when one went bad it was sudden and you couldn't miss it. Since the cracked hose is above the core and there is no gasket between the core and firewall it's possible that the dripping from the hose was the problem all along. I think I’ve decided to take the core locally and at least have it checked and if needed re-core. If it does need a re-core, I’ll probably take the other off just and have it re-done too just to be safe. If it turns out to be the hose I may just put it back together and be done with it.
The other option open to us in CA is to leave the ½” tube bridge in and do nothing but that’s not my style. I hate it when s**t doesn’t work right.

[depmike38]

You may be right about the hose but that was another thing I was considering when I get my carb back and can move the car to my work space. I know from talking to the previous owner who bought it in about 85 that most of the fluid hoses haven't been replaced at least during the time he owned it. What I decided to do at the outset is to replace all the hoses (vacuum,fuel,water,etc) as well as the belts and brake hoses. At least then I will have taken a lot of the items that deteriorate out of the equation and it should be a lot simpler to shake down the car. I've bypassed doing this on cars I've re-worked in the past and have always ultimately regretted it.

[Chuck Lutz]

Ya know what??.. I've put all these things in the pot and mixed them up. I always come up with the same basic conclusion. "There's lots to do with this car". I have a 50+ year old car that I really like... No, not just like..... Adore. What I strive to make is a car that I can drive at a moments notice without any concern of it starting, stalling at an intersection or looking the best it can look (well, that's not hard even when it stalls).

[depmike38]

I guess that's what I mean. I've wanted this car ever since my friend bought it almost 25 years ago. I'd never seen one before and thought it was (and still is) the classiest thing on four wheels. I've never gotten tired of it's looks and intend to take it out as often as possible.