Well guys, its that time. Finally got moved into the house and have a garage to work in to tackle this beast of a problem. Here's the previous thread on the topic:
http://durangoclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2093
Well, after day 2, I have a lot of things removed from the car, but still have a ways to go. Overall have spent about 4.5 hours on it so far. I have tons of pieces in the back seat, and following somebodys advice on here, have been taping the correct screws to the pieces as I take them off so none are lost or misplaced.
The big goal yesterday was the removal of the steering column and wheel, how much fun that was. The biggest pain was the one bolt down at the steering shaft. I could get to it easy and everything, but even after I got the nut broke loose, that thing wouldn't hardly budge with every tiny turn. Ended up taking me an hour to get the bolt off with the rest in-between. Towards the end, I sprayed RemOil on it and then it started to move a lot easier, so I'd recommend doing that from the beginning to anybody attempting this endeavor.
I have also now found supporting evidence of a bad heater core in the form of a stained piece of foam in my driver side vent. I removed it and can see a heavy greenish coating on the backside of it (picture included below.)
The shift cable at the base of the steering column was also not an easy task to remove just because it was hard to figure out how the plastic tabs on the backside were holding it in its bracket. It was two clips that just squeezed flush with the body of the cable, and while flush, pull the cable and it was no problem.
I'm now in the process of removing different connectors under the dash, and am getting ready to remove the center support bracket, and then I'm almost done with getting to the heater A/C housing. I don't think I could have ever done this without the FSM, although even it was a little vague with some of the random harness connectors to be unplugged and where they were, or what they even looked like, or how some of these darn clips everywhere worked. I don't think any two clips holding stuff on are the same. I have seen at least 10 different kinds of clip methods to hold on the plugs and cables.
I'll update later once I get the dash out and get to the heater core. Until then, here are some pics of this fun process :roll:
http://durangoclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2093
Well, after day 2, I have a lot of things removed from the car, but still have a ways to go. Overall have spent about 4.5 hours on it so far. I have tons of pieces in the back seat, and following somebodys advice on here, have been taping the correct screws to the pieces as I take them off so none are lost or misplaced.
The big goal yesterday was the removal of the steering column and wheel, how much fun that was. The biggest pain was the one bolt down at the steering shaft. I could get to it easy and everything, but even after I got the nut broke loose, that thing wouldn't hardly budge with every tiny turn. Ended up taking me an hour to get the bolt off with the rest in-between. Towards the end, I sprayed RemOil on it and then it started to move a lot easier, so I'd recommend doing that from the beginning to anybody attempting this endeavor.
I have also now found supporting evidence of a bad heater core in the form of a stained piece of foam in my driver side vent. I removed it and can see a heavy greenish coating on the backside of it (picture included below.)
The shift cable at the base of the steering column was also not an easy task to remove just because it was hard to figure out how the plastic tabs on the backside were holding it in its bracket. It was two clips that just squeezed flush with the body of the cable, and while flush, pull the cable and it was no problem.
I'm now in the process of removing different connectors under the dash, and am getting ready to remove the center support bracket, and then I'm almost done with getting to the heater A/C housing. I don't think I could have ever done this without the FSM, although even it was a little vague with some of the random harness connectors to be unplugged and where they were, or what they even looked like, or how some of these darn clips everywhere worked. I don't think any two clips holding stuff on are the same. I have seen at least 10 different kinds of clip methods to hold on the plugs and cables.
I'll update later once I get the dash out and get to the heater core. Until then, here are some pics of this fun process :roll:
