I am trying to replace the heaater core in my 1998 Jeep Cherokee. I have had several problems in following instrucitons receive, as nothing seem to match what I have. I have had to remove the entire dash, not just the "lower instrument panel". The illustrations and pictures of the housing for the core does not match what I have. Mine seems much more complicated. Is there somewhere where I can get an accurate description of what I need to do? Chilton and Haynes are no help, and what I got from the internet is also different. I don't usually have this kind of problem. This one has me baffled. Can somebody point me in the right direction? I have the dash and the console out already.
Thanks
Bernie

 

I was told the Lower half of the dash was all that needed to be removed......Im a bit confused what your asking....you already have everything out...

 

what i did was take off the lower dash, take off the nuts the hold the steering column from the dash and let rest on the seat, take the radio, hvac controls, and the center consol out. then take off the glove box door and the thing that runs along the windsheild. take both kick panels outand unbolt the dash. in the engine bay take the hoses off and disconnect the ac lines(after evacuating refrigerant) take out the nuts for the heater box. then move the dash just enough to get the box out. this way you dont have to disconnect every thing reverse all this to put it back together

 

I have the dash off as you see in the pictures. How do I get the air handler which contains the heater core out?

 

I'm bumping this because I am stuck here as well. Which engine side nuts or bolts are holding this thing and the blower motor? There is one bolt with a nut on it directly behind the cylinder head but Ive turned it 75 times and its just turning in place.

 

That is one of the nuts that needs to come off. You may need to have some gently pull on the box while you unscrew it. It may be spinning in the heater box. I think there was one more of those by the heater core hoses. Then two on the inside on the bottom of the heater box. I think that is all of them, did mine last year.

 

I already have the two off by the heater hoses, but when I pull the core from inside the Jeep there is no play at all. I will check the ones inside of it tomorrow. I ran out of daylight at 6pm, fml dst...

 

bumping this for an update on how it went......... this is next in my T2D list since I'll have the interior gutted. Also i read people had to take the evaporator off to get to heater core is this true? I didnt want to take that off if at all possible.

 

Yes if you work on your XJ go to pacific coast manuals and buy the FSM in PDF format for $7.95 a must have.

 

Somebody else on here said there were bolts holding it on the inside too, but there weren't. Only on the firewall side.

It wasn't bad, just time consuming. But I didn't have to replace anything though, I just pulled that whole thing out and pitched it because I dont need any part of the HVAC system anymore. The hardest part was getting the steering wheel bolted back on because I dropped it down for more room behind the dash to work. Also getting the dash back on and lined up right was a pain because I did it alone. It's a full days job for sure if you have to replace something back there.

Also, I dont know about the evaporator, I dont even remember seeing it.

 

If the heater core is now leaking, the evaporator isn't far behind.
2 birds, 1 stone.