tips for cleaning out the heater box?

[AMCdealer]

I think the heater box in the '88 Wag in my care is full of leaves or something. When you turn the fan on you can hear it running loudly and hear fluttering but there's very little airflow out of any of the vents.

Any tips on how to make this a quick job?

[fulsizjeep]

There is no quick way. The right way to clean this mess out involves removing the heater box and the vent grille under the wiper blades. I had to do this on Phoebe last Fall and it took most the afternoon to the clean up and repaint the heater box. I dropped the AC unit under the dash to get to the heater box mounts inside.

[carnuck]

Pull the heater fan box off and use a leaf blower, shop vac or compressed air to blast the junk out of there.

[fulsizjeep]

Pull the heater fan box off and use a leaf blower, shop vac or compressed air to blast the junk out of there.

That will get some of it. Especially if it looks like this inside:

[AMCdealer]

[mineral co]

And don't discount the possibility that the vacuum operated door into the the cabin may not be operating either. Rattles? Probably leaves. No air flow? Could be any number of things.

On mine (an '84), the squirrel cage blower had also moved a little bit (some how?) on the motor shaft and was making an awful noise. Sliding it back about a sixteenth of an inch on the motor shaft resolved that.

[carnuck]

The vacuum to the dash switch may not be hooked up too (people think it's "emissions" crap)

[brandtjohnd]

For what its worth, i did this on my 89 Wagoneer. The door was not controlled by vacuum but instead connected via a cable to the temperature selector slider on the dash. I did have to drop the interior A/C unit to get to the bolts that hold on the heater box. Once i removed all the Mud Dauber nests from inside the heater box, everything was lubed up and worked just fine.