Leon,

You humble me with your observations :-)

Ken

"Leon van Dommelen" > wrote in message
...
> "KWS" > wrote:
>
> >The heater core gave it up in the '90 at around 168K miles. Of course, it
> >dumped the contents of the cooling system into the interior, making for a
> >huge mess.
> >
> >I decided to remove and hose down the carpet as well as change out the
> >heater core. It seemed that the best way to do this was to remove the
> >dashboard, which seemed a little daunting. It's actually pretty
> >straightforward; as we all expect, the Miata is engineered for ease of
> >assembly so disassembly should not be all that difficult.
> >
> >The entire removal and replacement took a couple of weekends. I work at a
> >somewhat slow pace and fixed a few things along the way that ate up a
bunch
> >of time. This included replacement of the indicator light in the cruise
> >control switch, changing out the two lights in the radio that light up
the
> >LCD panel (put in LEDs instead as I could not find suitable bulbs),
> >installing new heater hoses and "rebuilding" the heater box.
> >
> >The latter was something that I could not have done without removing the
> >dash. The presence of coolant saturated the insulating material and
caused
> >it to deteriorate on some of the "flappers" inside. Disassembly and
> >re-assembly of this item is pretty easy. I used some insulating foam to
> >replace the material I scraped off. Preparing the surfaces to accept the
> >foam strips was a little difficult, but not rocket science. It took a
little
> >time to figure out what to do. Also, once the dash is out, all of these
> >heating components are very easy to replace.
> >
> >There were some items that I would like point out that may be of use to
> >others:
> >
> >1. There is what seems to be a temperature sensor behind and to the left
of
> >the glovebox.
>
> Probably the thermoswitch. EM 6:14.
>
> > I could not figure out how to remove the two connectors, so I
> >cut the wires and replaced them with an inline connector. Even after the
> >dash was off, I spent a few minutes and didn't figure it out. Of course,
I
> >was less interested at that point, as I already had cut the wires.
> >
> >2. There are three locations on the instrument cover that have clips
that
> >mate into the dashboard. Of the three, the two on the sides fractured
when I
> >removed the cover. I used an industrial glue to put them back together. I
> >also used a pair of needle nose pliers and relieved some of the tension
on
> >the clips.
> >
> >3. When removing the dash, I suggest putting some sort of masking tape
over
> >the steering wheel. I gouged the wheel cover in a few places as some
edges
> >of the dash are somewhat sharp. I enlisted some help removing the
dashboard,
> >but put it back in by myself.
>
> Of course, cutting through the carpet below the dash might be less
> visible than gouges in the steering wheel.
>
> Leon
>
> >4. I used a scissors jack to hold the steering wheel in place when I
> >re-installed the two bolts. Not having the seat in the car was probably a
> >pre-requisite to doing this.
> >
> >5. The tubing that pokes through the firewall for the two heater
> >connections is very fragile. if you use pliers to break the hose
connection
> >free, you will likely crush the tubing unless you are very careful.
> >
> >6. Even though I asked the question and the parts supplier for the
heater
> >core assured me it was so, both sections of tubing were not included on
the
> >replacement core. The section that is fixed to the core was included;
the
> >section that connects via the short length of tubing was not.
> >
> >7. One good way to make an oval end of fragile tubing round again is to
> >successively insert larger cylindrical objects into the end and re-form
it
> >until it is right. If you have a good selection of sockets, you probably
> >will have the right ones to do this job.
> >
> >Ken
> >
>
> --
> Leon van Dommelen Bozo, the White 96 Sebring Miata .)
> http://www.dommelen.net/miata
> EXIT THE INTERSTATES (Jamie Jensen)