First, disconnect the negative battery terminal.  By the time you’re done with the radiator and the dash panels, the airbag system will have time to discharge and can be safely removed.

Since the heater core will also come out with the evaporator you need to go ahead and drain the radiator, or pinch off the heater hoses if you want.   If you choose to drain, the valve is located behind the passenger side turn signal. If you have small hands you won’t have to detach the whole grill like I did.  In the inset you can just see where I attached a small hose I had laying around to direct the fluid to my drain pan.

Here is the dash layout with labels that may not be technically correct but I think they are accurate enough.  I found it easiest to remove all of these parts first.  If I had to do it again I use the following order: Knee Block,er  Control Panel,  Glove Box, Both Kick Panels, Instrument Panel, Upper Cover.  Finally,  just loosen the center console by finding the screws under the small panel around the shifter and under the little coin collector by the shifter.  Also remove the lid and locate 4 screws, 2 in the bottom of the console and 2 at the front near the latch.  The console should now by loose and able to move out of the way when you need it too.

With the dash panels out of the way proceed to the steering column.  I removed the airbag and the steering wheel separately, but I think you can also just remove the whole columns with the wheel and airbag attached. Either way, you still have to remove the plastic casing behind the steering wheel and remove all the connectors you find there.  To remove the ignition wire from the ignition switch, use the key to turn the switch to the start position and the wire should come right out.  There are 4 bolts under the dash that hold the column in place.  One bolt clamps the column to the u-joint near the firewall.  The whole assembly should now slide out easily.

Now with everything out of the way, remove the 7 connectors.  I think there were just 7.  Starting on the left, there are 2 large connectors that are secured with a bolt to the left side of the vehicle.  Moving right there is a yellow airbag connector. Attached to the steering support is a connector and to the right of the steering column behind the dash is another connector that is clipped to a thin piece of metal protruding from the firewall.  Behind the glove box in the upper left is a vacuum connector to release and behind the passenger kick panel look for the antenna cable coupling.

All that remains before removing the dash/instrument cluster is to remove the nuts and bolts circles above.  The nuts at the bottom of the dash that attach near the door frame only need to be loosened.  There is a metal bracket under the center that bolts to the floor board under the carpet and to the dash below the 12 volts outlets.   Now carefully remove the dash board.

The heater core and evaporator core housing is now revealed.  The next step is to evacuate the refrigerant.   After that you will need a set of spring lock coupling removal tools to disconnect the AC lines from the evaporator.  It is recommended to plug the ends of the lines or cover them with plastic.

There are 2 connectors to remove disconnect on the housing and five nuts.  The nuts are located in the engine compartment.  One is behind the valve cover, another is lower down behind the valve cover gasket.  2 more are serving a dual purpose by holding the drier bracket in place on the firewall.  The last one is visible on the firewall behind some of the evaporative emissions stuff.  After removing these 5 nuts begin working the housing loose.  It may be necessary to remove the 2 screws holding the front of the floor vent in place in order to get around the center console.

With the housing out remove all the screws around the sides and the 3 screws holding the fan motor on and remove the upper half to reveal the heater core and the evaporator. Be careful not to damage the styrofoam tray on the bottom of the evaporator. Also slowly remove the rubber gaskets from the old evaporator and replace them on the new one, along with the styrofoam tray.   Now just reinstall everything in the opposite order!  The AC lines do not require any tools to reassemble, just snap them back together with a quick push.  Evacuate the system and recharge with a couple cans of R134 and you’re ready to go!

I did all this in 14 hours! Maybe you will be able to do it faster.

As you can see, mommy is in good spirits.  The worst symptoms,  nausea for example, have subsided and she is able to enjoy life again.   Some muscle and joint aches are common now, but we can treat these with our new sofa and chair!  They arrived on Friday, much sooner than we thought.  Here’s a pic of the new pieces.  The final addition to complete our living room will be an entertainment cabinet my dad will build for us.  We are still making up our minds on the baby room.  A handfull of paint samples are stuck to the wall and we also have a dresser and a bookshelf and a glider in there now.   Amanda has cleaned out the closet to make room for baby stuff.   This weekend we are going to pick up a baby bed from Amanda’s sister and then the room will really start to look like something.  There are 5 months left and it seems like the first 4 flew by with out any warning.  We better hurry up and get ready!!!

My air conditioning class has been fun. Yesterday we spend the last 4 hours practicing cutting, bending, fitting, and brazing copper tubing for A/C refrigerant lines. Each person assembled his pieces into an air tight assembly then pressure tested them to make sure they hold 800 psi with no leaks, then the instructor punches a hole in our work and we get to patch the hole and pressure test it again. But A/C lines are subject to vibration and some abuse over their lifetime, so to simulate that, our instructor smashes and mangles our assemblies and puts them through the pressure test again. Mine passed!

On the family front, as we approach the third trimester, Amanda’s morning sickness(all day sickness) has diminished so she can eat more often and more of what she wants. I haven’t heard her complain about much besides lower back soreness. Otherwise she feels pretty good! Oh, speaking of eating, we found a great place called Beverly’s Pancake House for lunch yesterday. Omlettes and made-from-scratch pancakes that are amazing! Awesome hash browns too! We are going back soon to try out the dinner menu.

I’ve awakened my own appetite now so I’m off to the fridge.

When did we find out? Amanda had been pretty tired for a few days and had finally started feeling nauseous last Monday so she decided to try one of the tests, then another, and another! She went to the doctor last Monday afternoon to confirm that the handful of positive tests she took that same morning were all correct, and they were! I arrived home while she was at the doctor’s office and didn’t know any better so I proceed to work up a sweat cleaning the garage. It’s a good time for me to do that kind of thing while her Jeep is out of the way. So when she gets home there I am a little dirty with some grease on my hands and starting to look a bit more like an sweaty auto mechanic than an electronics technician. She looked at me than glanced at the mess I had made in the process of my “cleaning” and asked if I might be coming inside any time soon. “I suppose,” I replied, and then she went on in. Not knowing what to make of the brief greeting, I finished rolling up the cord I was holding and went in to find out what I did this time. Turns out she wasn’t actually upset about anything. I was just not in the location where I should have been when she got home that particular day. She handed me one of the tests and I was pretty sure what she meant by showing it to me, but the lines on those things are confusing so she explained that it was positive! Wow! We had prayed about this before and asked the Lord to be sovereign over this area of our lives and bless us with a baby when He felt we were ready. That was quick! I thought we’d have more time to get ready, but I guess we’re ready enough for him.

Since then we have set up more doctors appointments, bought a few books such as What to Expect When You’re Expecting, started restocking the pantry, researching pregnancy, and reviewing our insurance. We also have Amanda’s old baby bed so we’ve been comparing it against modern safety standards before we decided if we will finish it. Apparently modern babies are more clever today than 27 years ago! Thus begins the next segment of our life’s journey! We will keep posting updates and some pictures. I ‘ll be making a separate baby page soon and hopefully we’ll get a little sonogram picture to put on it this week!