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A heater core, generally speaking, is one of the most difficult to repair components on your car, regardless of make. I would get a shop manual--not the owners and not a Chiltons, but the exact shop manual for your car. These might still be available from your dealer or from book providers advertising in Hemmings Motor News.
Typically, the heater core is way up inside the dash, mounted on the firewall of the car. They look like little radiators. Since the 80s, many of them have plastic fittings and only last 10-15 years, so it's not surprise yours is worn out, and I would guess, leaking and/or putting a strange mist on your windshield that does not dry by itself.
To get to it, the issues are worse if you have air conditioning. Typically, the air conditioning vents, blower, heater blower, glovebox, etc will have to be removed. You can imagine the difficulty in doing all this under the dash. My recommendation is to remove the passenger seat to give you room. Label all bolts, screws, etc and keep them in a parts tray so you don't lose them. You don't want it to go back together 1/2 a$$ed and loose.
Once everything is out and you can get to it, you will see in/out hoses. These are the same rubber hoses that you see going into the firewall from the engine side. REPLACE THESE HOSES TOO, so you don't have to do it again. If the heater valve is right there, I would replace that also, they can become sticky.
Use a medium size Channel Lock pliers or equivalent to remove the heater hoses--you may slit them with a razor first to aid their removal. The core will be strapped on and usually retained with a screw.
If you can no longer get an exact replacement part, there are generic ones available.
One more note, if you just have to drive the car immediately and can do without heat, you can disconnect the heater hose usually at the firewall and route it back to where the OTHER hose plugs into the engine, basically re-routing the water right back and bypassing the heater box. You will obviously have no heat, and your defroster will not work as well as it will use car temperature air. But this can enable you to use your car until you have time to fix it. I would give it the better part of a weekend.
Good luck!
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∙ 16y ago
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