Is there anyway I can remove, or somehow move the A/C components in my car, so I can get the blower motor away from the firewall, to paint my engine bay? I don't have the car near me to look at it, but the hoses for the A/C seem to run through the blower motor case.

My A/C works beautifully, I just had it converted to 134 2 years ago I think, maybe 1 year and I want to keep it, but I need to clear off that firewall so I can do a proper job.

My dad said most cars you can remove the brackets and move the stuff out of the way, but not to touch any hoses. The hose seems to run through the casing on my blower.

Any help would be appreciated. I have a 92 3.1

Mathius

 

It depends on how careful you want to be, and how much time you have.

But, I'm serious... you can lift the whole a/c system out of your car in one piece, without cracking any fittings open. The top of the heater/evaporator box (that fiberglass box on the firewall that your blower motor goes into) can be removed; there's quite a few 9/32" screws that need to be removed. Be careful when removing that "cap" from the box, it's very tight against the cowl. Try to remember how you took it off, and try to put it right back on as soon as you get it off. Reason is so that you remember how to get it back on. It can be a tricky SOB, and wedge itself between the top of the evaporator and the lip of the cowl.

Unbolt the lower accumulator bracket from the evap box. (Accumulator is the shiny can on the passenger side.) Unbolt all brackets holding the a/c hard line to the passenger side main frame rail. Unbolt the a/c compressor, remove the belt, and disconnect the electrical. Remove the clips holding the a/c hoses to the fan, and remove the cooling fan from the radiator support. Unhook the electrical connectors from the accumulator and a/c hard line (pass main frame rail).

Tilt the radiator back- might be tons easier to drain the coolant and remove the radiator. You'll see the condensor. Remove any bolts on the passenger side that bolt the condensor to the radiator support (I don't think there's any, but it's been a while.) Now you'll need a friend or two...

The whole system needs to be lifted out in one piece. DON'T BEND ANY HARD LINES!! The compressor is easy to lift up, as is the condensor. But, the condensor's connected to the evaporator (in the firewall box) by a hard line that you can't bend! (They're aluminum and crack easy if they flex too much). The accumulator is connected right to the condensor, making the condensor VERY hard to lift up out of the box.

So a basic lifting sequence might be to lift the a/c compressor up an inch or three, and as you do so, lift the driver's side of the condensor (in radiator support) up a few. As you lift the passenger side of the condensor, you'll need to lift up the evaporator out of the firewall box. By lifting the evap out, the acuumulator also comes up. (Remember that little bracket on the bottom of the accumulator that bolts the accumulator to the heater/evap box.) When you and your buddies have the whole system in the air, walk it over to a grassy spot and rest it down without bending any hard lines.

Oh yeah; it might be much easier if you remove the hood for this. Unbolt the hood from the hinge, not the hinge from the fenders... this allows you to have an easier job of aligning the hood to the fenders. If you unbolt the hinge from the fenders, you'll need to play with alignment when you bolt the hinges back on- you don't want to scratch your fenders when you close the hood (or for Firebirds, ruin the paint on the flip-up headlights when they flip up and catch the mis-aligned hood under the back lip of the headlight door.)

Whew. Good luck! Personally I'd just mask the damn thing off. There's one or two lonnnng 10mm screws on the inside of the car that hold the heater/evap box to the firewall. Also, the box has a gasket running along it, where it touches the firewall, if you're careful, it won't rip, and you can reuse it. You will have to "cut" the gasket in two spots to be able to lift the cap off the box though.

 

That heater blower motor is such a PITA to remove.
Tape it off.
You'll be done in less time than it took to read Tom's response! ;>
Good luck prepping engine bay (for painting) with engine in there.
PS You'll end up with lots of fisheyes due to oils in the surfaces under the hood. DuPont makes a great paint prep for wiping down surfaces before spraying.

 

TomP and KED85,

Hood is already off the car. I don't have any plans to pull the radiator yet, but at least I have the information there if I need it. My main concern is getting the blower motor off the firewall, I'm doing a color change. Granted, no one will know until they pull that off, but still, I'll know.

AFA prepping goes, I've already got the driver's side cleared out, but the passenger side has more wiring and the blower motor and a/c, so it's taking me longer. I have some solution by PPG that's supposed to be used to degrease. I think I'll take a pressure washer to it first. Once I get the distributor off, and decide what I'm gonna do with the blower motor, I'll be ready to start sanding.

I started sanding the driver's side a bit already, and let me tell you, there was a lot of corosion under where the battery sits. I took my dremel in there, and after a while said screw it and went with my 4" angle grinder.

I can post pictures if anyone wants to see, but it's embarassing to me, honestly. Seeing the whole thing together it my car was pretty rust free I thought, but taking it apart exposes lots of stuff I'm not proud of.

Mathius

 

There are TWO screws/bolts on the heater motor/blower motor that are so inaccessible........

I've painted engine bays before.
Go to a paint supply store & ask them for stuff to use for
Prep & proper paint application.

Want an easy cleaner?

EASY OFF OVEN CLEANER!!
Serious!
Go to the store & buy the cheapest strongest smelling stuff ya can find & it's like $4 a can.
Use it as suggested (cold) & let it soak & then cold water gentle hose off.

You will be amazed what also comes off the engine bay walls!

Avoid rattle cans.
The "good looks" tend to be momentary.
I really wish GM painted these engine bays like the old days, good old Egg Shell Black!
It's hard to have a beige colored car & be "serious" about your engine bay!

 

An update here, any suggestions are welcome. Started taking the blower motor apart yesterday.... disconnected all the wires and pulled them out of the way. Got the blower motor out. The "cap" on the box is being a PITA as stated earlier. Any advice you have here would be grately appreciated. I spent 3 hours working on the car yesterday before I had to jet to get to work and I couldn't get that damn thing out. I cracked it in one spot, too small to cry about, but the best I'm able to do is loosen it. I took the bracket off the canister for the A/C, hoping I could shift the assembly forward slightly, but no dice. that electrical fitting on the back of the canister is really in the way for removing the cap.

Another question, the lower half of the box, there seems to be some bolts or something on the bottom holding it, or is that the gasket? I removed the 3 10mm bolts, but it's still stuck there good. If I have to I'll just pull it away from the firewall, but can I take that thing out without moving the a/c or no?

THanks for your help so far guys.

Mathius

 

When I have replaced heater cores on older GM vehicles (My 67 & 68 Camaros & my 74 Corvette), the heater box on the firewall was removed, also. GM uses a ribbon adhesive for sealing. My Corvette also has AC.
What you are dealing with MAY be that stuff.
Real auto paint supply stores sell that stuff.
MAY be wises to go to wrecking yard & examine a few cars to see that area exposed better. And pick up that part ya already broke.
OR head to a GM dealer offer the parts counter guy a soda to print out the exploded diagram of that area. These days ANY GM dealer can show ya other GM vehicles than what they sell.

 

It may well be, TomP did say there was a gasket there, but he's got an older bird if I remember correctly. I have a '92 camaro, could be that they switched over to some type of silicone.
I can get the diagram, I have a CD with all that stuff on there, that's not a bad idea, to look at it and see if they used a gasket or not.

As far as looking at a junk yard, that's an awesome idea, except the two better yards around here that I know about are no help. The one only has a few camaro's, and the engines are still sitting in them, and I don't even remember if they had A/C or not. The other ones is useless, they pull the motor and all that stuff out of the cars and rebuild them or store them.

Thanks though,
Mathius