8 mm nuts on the tiny little bolts. Pretty easy to twist them off too. I
have had to remove the cowl over the windshield wipers, drill the stud out and
weld in a bolt as a replacment. I went up to a 6 mm bolt (10 mm wrench) when
I did that.
The tabs on the heater housing are slotted on both sides. Therefore, you
really need to remove only the nuts and washers on one side. The other side
you can just loosen the nuts.
And yes you can replace the heater with the dash and the seats in place in
the Alfa spider. It is a lot easier if the spider is not air conditioned.
And the later the spider the harder it is, what with knee bolsters and such.
I have a friend who is about 100 pounds and has small hands. I try to get
him to do any work up under the dash that needs done.
Ciao,
Russ Neely
--- On Wed, 1/6/10, [email protected] <[email protected]>
wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [alfa] Re Speaking of heater cores
To: "Colin Talcroft" <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 7:19 PM
Hi Colin,
First off, replacing the heater core on a 78 is not difficult. The heater is
suspended from the underside of the dash by 4 small nuts - 7mm, I think. You
can wiggle it out on the passenger side. But first you have to disconnect the
wires, the heater control cables and the hoses. I am pretty sure that you must
also remove the central console - it is a while since I did one. Place some
plastic sheet under the heater so that the coolant does not stain your new
carpets. When you get the heater out you must disassemble it to replace the
heater core. Take a picture of the damper linkages before you take them out -
it will help when you reassemble them. And finally, the first step is to
remove the front seats so that you have easier access to the heater. Some of
the work is performed lying on your back with your head under the dash. This
is why we like Alfas! I had to remove a front wheel to replace a headlight
bulb on Monday.
Ed Prytherch, Columbia SC
79 Spider
85 GTV6
2 x 88 Milano Verdes --
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