Climate control

Hey everyone,

I'm in the process of replacing my water pump, I'm about half way thru with the repairs and decided to fix a few other things while the o' girl is having downtime. With that being said, my climate control system has no heat or cold air coming thru it, I've tried sourcing the heater core and it's plumbing but came back with with no luck.

Its a 1988 mercury grand marquis wagon, does anyone have a diaphragm or exploded view of the climate control system and it's plumbing? OH and A diaphragm and the engine's belt routing, it would help as a point of refrence when I piece everything back together.

Thanks

 

If it is not manual air conditioning and it does have ATC, best wishes. Those things never worked. The switch position you need to cool off or get warm is often a dead spot. I speak from experience with a 1988 Country Squire LX. Heater core is readily available,but the installation is challenging,having you disassemble everything from both sides of the firewall.

 

How could I tell if its mechanical? It has the standard system I see on some modern cars, Ac compressor with all the other goodies.

 

Is there also a better system I could fit in? Might have to hold off the Climate control until summer then... Man driving with no heat is going to suck in Jan. Is there any way to only get the heat working for now?

 

Does your heater core leak? If not I wouldn't replace it. There should be a valve that shuts the hot coolant off when it isn't needed. It may be stuck closed, you may be able to open it manually or bypass it for the winter. Does your fan com on for defrosters?

 

Yeah the fans do come on

 

Look for the shut off valve. My 77 colony park and 64 Cadillac both have them. They also have comfort control.

 

What would it look like? Oh and im not sure if the core leaks or not, i dont think any coolant runs thru it.

 

Okay so I popped it open and found out I have a mechanical system. A cable travels from the arm that selects the tempurature to a box, whats inside the box, I have no idea. I think its safe to say i have a vacuum issue

 

When you move the temp lever, you should hear a 'thunk' if you go from end to end, and there should be some resistance when you do it. A disconnected cable won't have much, if any, resistance. So, inside the box is a door that the cable and crank arm rotate. It changes the air path either by splitting the air, blocking the air to the heater core, or to the bypass channel that goes around the heater core.

 

As for the core itself, water still runs through, but if the core is blocked, it'll just run through the tank at the top, completely bypassing the core tubes. I had a cold Winter with the CP, defrosting the windshield consisted of opening the hood and running the engine at 1500 RPM, then driving with the windows down so my breath and any sweat wouldn't freeze on the inside. And after all that, I still didn't get the heater core replaced until Spring.

 

And Panther cars from '79 through the last year of 5.0L engines, 1992, never had a coolant control valve of any kind with manual HVAC setups.

 

Checked under the glove box and dash, everything connects for the vacuum hoses, although i found a decent number of electrical connectors to be unhooked. Even around the climate unit. (Maybe an aftermarket ecu, as the wiring in this wagon has caught on fire before me)

 

everything thats unhooked is marked in red, there are a few others but ill post them on later

 

Found out the core is a leaky whore, the previous owners cut the pipes and looped them to the acs. outlets in the water-pump.
How difficult is it to swap it out, is there any way to get it out w/o having to pry everything out.