1987 FORD THUNDERBIRD TURBO COUPE DASH REMOVAL
FOR HEATER CORE/AC EVAPORATOR REPLACEMENT
BY Randy Wilhite
This is the procedure I used to remove and reinstall the dash from my 1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo
Coupe and replacement of the heater core and the air conditioning evaporator core. This car was
equipped with air conditioning and the Ford electronic automatic climate control system. This guide is a
compilation of actual work steps and guides I found on the turbotbird.com forum and another found on
the internet. Some of the photos are mine and some are from other sources - Special thanks to Eric of
Eric's Cool Cats and Lee, alsoPete from NATO and the NATO message board for some of the pics and
information below. This took me about 15 hours, but I spent a lot of time writing down each step as I
went. You may be able to pull the dash in as little as six hours using these steps. I bagged all screws and
parts for each step and labeled the bags with the step number as I went, but you may do it your own
way.
NOTES:
A. You will have to bleed the AC system down as this procedure requires removal of the AC
accumulator (and possible AC evaporator if necessary).
B. I found a 1/4 inch drive set of metric deep well sockets to be invaluable.
C. While you can perform all removal steps alone, an assistant is almost a requirement during
reinstallation.
1. Disconnect the battery.
2. Remove the center console
a. Remove ash tray and two phillips screws, one on each side of ash tray recess.
b. Open console lid and remove the two phillips screws securing seat/window/mirror controls.
c. Tag and remove seat/window/mirror electrical connectors and control levers.
d. Remove window control mounting screws.
e. Remove ash tray light mount.
f. Disconnect mirror control harness plug and remove cover plate from vehicle.
g. Unscrew shifter knob from shifter lever and remove from vehicle.
h. Remove phillips screw from each side of plastic shifter cover and remove cover from vehicle.
i. Remove the two pieces of insulation batting from the shifter lever.
j. Remove center console lid from hinge - two short phillips screws.
k. Remove center console well - eight short phillips screws and two longer phillips screws at the
bottom rear of the well.
l. Carefully slide console cover toward back seat until the two front plastic prongs clear the radio/AC
stack. Lift up over the shifter and disconnect grey wiring harness plug.
m. Remove radio/AC control stack bezel - two short phillips screws at the bottom and two longer
screws at the top of the stack bezel.
3. Remove right and left speaker grills by gently sliding a flat tipped screw driver around edges of grill.
4. Remove upper dash rectangular cover located on the dash directly under the rear view mirror.
5. Remove left and right kick panel covers.
a. Remove left and right Rocker panel covers - four phillips screws on each side.
b. Use flat tipped screwdriver to remove flat plastic snaps from each kick panel - one on each panel and remove panels from car.
6. Remove glove box.
a. Press in on top inside corners of glove box and rotate entire box down towards floorboard.
b. Remove three hinge crews and light plunger and remove glove box from car.
7. Drop the steering column.
a. Tilt steering wheel with tilt control all the way up.
b. Remove center trim cover from under steering column - two phillips screws on bottom edge of
cover and two phillips screws along top edge of cover.
c. Remove left trim from beside the column - one phillips screw.
d. Remove right trim from beside column - one phillips screw.
e. Use a 14 mm deep well socket to remove the four column mount nuts and drop the column to
rest on front edge of the driver's seat.
8. Dash Dismounting
a. Measure from edge of steel half-round steering column support bracket towards firewall five
inches and you will see a 10 mm nut on a stud pointing towards floor - remove this nut.
b. On outside bottom corners of dash are two 10 mm bolts, one on each side, revealed when kick
panels were removed in step 5. Remove these bolts.
c. Remove one 7 mm bolt from left and right speaker recesses.
d. Remove the 7 mm bolt from center cover recess (directly under rear view mirror).
e. Remove left and right pillar covers that extend over inside of door.
9. Under the Hood:
a. Remove intercooler.
b. Open radiator cap, place bucket under radiator and drain coolant. This will prevent coolant from
draining inside car later.
c. Undo accumulator AC lines and electrical connector.
d. Loosen clamp around accumulator and remove accumulator from car.
e. Place shallow catch pan under heater hose connections to heater core and remove both hoses.
Use the exhaust from a small shop vacuum connected to one of the heater core tubes to force all
possible coolant from the heater core.
f. By now the radiator is fully drained so close the draincock and set bucket of drained coolant aside
for reuse.
g. Plug each heater core tube - I used wine bottle corks cut down with a box cutter.
h. Use an 11 mm deep well socket and remove the nuts at each end of the AC accumulator
mounting bracket. Remove the bracket from the car. Under the bracket, on the same studs
where the bracket was removed, are two 11 mm nuts with integral domed washers. Remove
these and the rubber seals under them.
i. You are done under the hood for now.
10. Gently pull dash as far back as it will go. If it did not already pull loose, disconnect the 1 inch
corrugated plastic tube running to the AC/Heater box to allow more dash travel. You may also work
dash up over the shifter to allow additional rearward travel.
a. Remove the 11 mm bolt from top and bottom of rightmost flat steel mounting strap.
b. Remove the 11 mm bolt from top and bottom of leftmost flat steel mounting strap.
c. Remove the 11 mm bolt from the bottom of the AC/Heater box - this bolt is close to the
transmission tunnel and deeply recessed towards the firewall in a molded plastic mount. This is
a long bolt, so it takes some unscrewing to get it all the way out.
d. Disconnect all four electrical connections from AC/Heater box.
e. Remove the entire AC/heater box from the car. The assembly is 33 inches long, 13 inches deep
and 14 inches high, so it will take some manipulation to get it out. I found it necessary to
disconnect all of the electrical wiring harnesses from the front right kick panel recess.
11. Heater core removal from AC/Heater box assembly: (this assumes you have the assembly out of the
car and on a work table):
a. Remove the five 8 mm bolts that secure the heater core cover to the AC/Heater box assembly.
b. Pry up the cover and remove the heater core.
c. Embed the new heater core and replace cover.
12. AC Evaporator removal from AC/Heater box assembly: (again , assumes you have the entire
assembly on a work table):
a. Remove the heater core.
b. Remove the two 11 mm nuts from underside of the blower assembly that secures the blower
assembly to the rest of the AC/Heater box assembly.
c. Separate blower assembly.
d. Remove all 8 mm bolts securing top of assembly to bottom of assembly.
e. Split the AC/Heater box assembly and replace evaporator after transferring foam rubber
evaporator molding to the new evaporator.
f. Rejoin upper and lower AC/Heater box assembly halves.
g. Reinstall blower assembly.
h. Reinstall heater core and cover.
REINSTALLATION
13. Reinstall AC/Heater box assembly in car.
a. Slide assembly half way into passenger floorboard.
b. Connect electrical connector into the far left receptacle.
c. Route wiring bundle over the top of the AC/Heater box assembly and connect the three other
plugs including the blower main power plug.
d. With help from an assistant, lift up the AC/Heater box assembly and reinstall the two mounting
straps from steps 10a and 10b.
e. Under the hood, reinstall the rubber seals and large nuts with integral dome washers removed in
step 9h.
f. Reinstall the long 11 mm bolt securing the bottom of the AC/Heater box assembly to the firewall.
This is the bolt removed in step 10c and it goes through the firewall.
g. Under the hood, re-install the AC accumulator mounting bracket.
h. Under the hood, reinstall the AC accumulator and plug in the electrical connector.
i. Under the hood, reattach the heater hoses to the new heater core tubes.
The remainder of the reinstallation is pretty much the reverse of steps 1 through 10, except that you are
going to hang the dash by reinstalling the top three 7 mm bolts removed in steps 8c and 8d first. Once
these three bolts are installed, all other bolt holes will line up. Also, don't forget to reinstall that
corrugated 1 inch plastic hose you disconnected in step 10.