GMC Motorhome, dash AC heater box

Before we get into today’s subject, you are hearing about this from every point I know but living here in Orlando, Janie & I living less than 2 miles from the event for over 30 years….. I have to say there has to be an answer to this new found way to create bloodshed.  Doesn’t matter it was a bar for LGBT or whatever…. they were people …. people not animals or anything else… how can anyone treat people like that?  I know folks in other parts of the world see this every day which makes it that much more of an insane act.  The US cannot accept this, must we turn into hard core militia… never flying, never getting into a crowd, questioning everyone and their motive.  Stop with this assault rifle shit…. stop selling the damn things to anyone… hell the only reason I would want one is because everyone else has one…. and I have no reason other than that to have one.  So now we ban dangerous motorcycles…. jet skis…. hover boards…. Segways and everyother thing that someone could hurt us with?  This is stupid… no it’s guns.. big nasty guns….. Let terrorists try and kill people with a bow.  I have a bow and am pretty damn good with it.  One guy tries to mess with me and he’ll get an arrow.  That’s my plan  a bow and a knife.  No mass killing with a bow and a knife!  Guns suck and I’m not against them… they are just too easy an instrument for sick people so we need some other controls….. America is killing itself!  See, this is why I should not be in public office, this issue is much more complicated than that so guys…… lets think hard about how to do something about this… this is the only planet we have and we need to live on it together.

Enough od that, lets get away from all that for a bit… have you ever seen what’s inside the big black heater box up in the front og your coach?  John, not picking on your coach but we’re diver down into your heater box prepping for the new under dash ice blower for your dash and we have to go into the heater box to do the job. 

So John, here’s your coach… look below and you can see the back side of the heater box cover   Here’s the front side you may recognize more   Inside this box are a couple of important parts… the heater core we all know of and the AC evaporator.  Note the baffle between the upper heater core and the lower AC evaporator   Think about it a minute, the only thing between the heat and the cold is that baffle and the “dust in the wind” gasket that’s supposed to block the 2 sides.  The heater control lever on your dash simply opens and closes this baffle door.   If you want cold.. you flip the lver to the left which is supposed to block off heat from the core which BTW has hot water flowing about all the time.  In the absence of vacuum from the heater control valve hater passes.  Oh, you say your vacuum diaphrams in your dash work perfect and that gasket isn’t dead like this one?  If this heater box has never been opened like this… you are wrong.  The only thing between hot and cold is this dead gasketed baffle door   Good luck with that one!   Now we install 2 high quality brass ball valves on both hoses going to the heater core as a counter measure WHEN that 40 year old heater core starts to leak.  That’s engine coolant which could take out your motor.  Always good to have countermeasures but these valves will also take any heat from the core and from the box so your dash AC has a better chance of working.  Contaminating the cool with the heater core is obviously counterproductive and trust me when I tell you that old dash AC control system may not be doing it’s proper job..

The new system is paralleled off the original system, it has to work well and that’s why we must replace the expansion valve seen in the pic above, maybe the thermostat below it… check the evap and install a new gasket on that baffle before we can put in the new snow blower.

Here is the dash with the unit mounted  2 vents covered in blue tape with 2 vents at a 45 angle out the sides helps to distribute the cold really well.  Not beautiful but not bad looking but brother you can get cubed ice on low and crushed on high!  You guys out there with a 75 or 76… move that 2 vent plenum under the dash and put this there… you will super cool the cold air already coming in!  Oh yeah this works!

How much?  Well, your dash AC needs to be restored first.  New compressor… hoses… bla bla you can look at $1000 and then add the new system could push the same so yeah, it’s a pile of work but brother here in Florida… you neeeeeeeed it!      This project should crank up today, stay tuned for the blizzard condition report….

We have Mark Creel from Besemer Alabama scheduled to roll in today with yet another soup to nuts restoration project.  Mark has a great shop up near Birmingham… been doing this a long time and I’m excited to work with him on a restoration… stay tuned for more…

OK, that’s the fun for today… keep Orlando in your thoughts, this shooting has put a real cloud over us.  See ya tomorrow……

Liked it? Take a second to support jimbounds on Patreon!