Evaporator cores, Escort forums and Newbies, oh my!!

Oh the irony.

My brother took his car (96 Ford Escort LX) to several mechanics because the AC stopped working. The diagnosis from both was that it needed a new evaporator core and was going to cost about 1000 dollars because you have to remove the dash. That much to replace a 100 dollar part but it's almost all labor and I understand the cost.

He called me to come over with my laptop and search the internet for him and hopefully find a video showing how it's done. He's capable of doing this himself but was seeking a little help from the internet.

Three hours later and the only thing I could find was pictures a guy had taken when he replaced the evaporator core in his 2001 Escort which didn't help my brother.

Got a bite to eat and while I was eating I thought to search for Ford Escort Forums.

Yes, great idea! You can see where this is going, right?

I actually found a forum dedicated to 2nd generation Escorts so I started searching and 30 minutes later I couldn't find anything. I'm pretty sure someone on that forum has replaced one of these before and probably has pics and or video of the process but it was getting late and I had to go.

I told him the best thing to do would be to go to the library (1/4 mile away) and spend some time on the Escort forum reading and searching.

His response was, "I don't have time to spend reading on some forum. I need the MF'er fixed now! Can't you just get on there and ask someone to help me?"

I swear to God I'm not making this up. This happened last night.

So he wants me to go to this forum as a newbie and ask them how to replace an evaporator core in a 96 Ford Escort LX. And please provide pics and maybe a video because I need to get this completed ASAP.

Wow! I mean, really? Are you kidding me?

I tried to explain how forums work and how you don't just go to one and expect immediate help.

His response was, "Well if they don't want to help me then just F those old MF'ers! I'll do it without their help!"

He was not happy and I tried to explain but he just wasn't listening.

Lmfao

Jeez .... the title of the thread said ESCORT forums. I was expecting pretty girls. Had no idea what they might have to do with evaporator coils and newbies but it sounded like it might be entertaining. >:)

I'm sorely disappointed !

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Lol ... sounds like the heat makes your brother cranky. I would just let it ride. Let him sweat it out for awhile and he might come around. It's like anything else in life. You have to put the work in to get something out of it. You can't help somebody who isn't wiling to help themselves even if they are your kin.

Uggh .... got a job coming up that i absolutely dread. The splines on the torque converter of my 2005 Taurus sheared off last January. It's only a hundred dollar part but it's gonna be a no-fun job.

I've watched a couple of youtube videos. (They seem to have videos for everything.)

Bottom line, i've got to get either a Ford shop manual,a Chilton's or Haynes repair manual before i start. They aren't perfect, but they give you a fairly decent set of instructions for disassembly & repair.

Scrappah, have you checked the Taurus forum? I've found all kinds of info for my '99 there. There is some Ford techs that hang out there.

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Originally Posted by Scrappah

Jeez .... the title of the thread said ESCORT forums. I was expecting pretty girls. Had no idea what they might have to do with evaporator coils and newbies but it sounded like it might be entertaining. >:)

I'm sorely disappointed !

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Lol ... sounds like the heat makes your brother cranky. I would just let it ride. Let him sweat it out for awhile and he might come around. It's like anything else in life. You have to put the work in to get something out of it. You can't help somebody who isn't wiling to help themselves even if they are your kin.

Uggh .... got a job coming up that i absolutely dread. The splines on the torque converter of my 2005 Taurus sheared off last January. It's only a hundred dollar part but it's gonna be a no-fun job.

I've watched a couple of youtube videos. (They seem to have videos for everything.)

Bottom line, i've got to get either a Ford shop manual,a Chilton's or Haynes repair manual before i start. They aren't perfect, but they give you a fairly decent set of instructions for disassembly & repair.

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Sorry to disappoint Scrappah. Google can take care of that for you. You're just a few clicks away from anything.:))

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Scrappah, have you checked the Taurus forum? I've found all kinds of info for my '99 there. There is some Ford techs that hang out there.

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The Taurus forum really is quite good. Last time through, i kinda made the same mistake that Jim had mentioned. I was in a rush and didn't spend the time to get to know people first before asking a question. Their archives were helpful on a couple of other known Taurus issues.

I've got a friend of 30 years who is fully ASE certified and working in the trade every day that i can go to. We kinda help each other out. I'm a master carpenter by trade and he's a Master mechanic. I'm sure he knows things i wouldn't even suspect and vise versa. If i need a specialty tool it's never a problem to borrow one.

I'm just a shade tree mechanic. It's not so much that i can't do the work. Nobody questions the quality of my work .... it's just that it takes a really long time to do it. Somebody that knows what he's doing could probably do the job in a day. The same job will probably take me close to a week.

I've been trying to work out a barter and trade deal with him because it would make more sense to put the best qualified man on the job but he doesn't seem interested.

< sigh > I guess i'll just have to go do it the hard way. Now that the weather has warmed up there's no excuse for putting it off any longer. Just gotta get the book and follow the step by step instructions for doing the job.

The hardest part with anything you really don't want to do is to make a start. It's not so bad once you're into it a ways.

Under the dash on a 96....Hmmm a sawsall seems like a great start. Chop out dash. Replace evaporator. Gorilla Glue the dash back in and for a pro job get some rattle can and paint it.

I think this repair proceedure would fit your brothers current attitude. 73 , Mike

goat of the month? - The Goat Spot - Goat Forum

Sounds like a raging case of entitlementitis. Perhaps an ass kicking might cure him. Just an idea. :)

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Originally Posted by hobo finds

goat of the month? - The Goat Spot - Goat Forum

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http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g6/jim_6b/laughn.gif

I had the same sorta problem with a guy a while ago, he was the tenant of a friends house, when friend was in town he stays there too.
So this guy knows I do escrap but wants me to tell him how I do it... (Yeah right!) exactly how I do it....

I counter with "what sort of computer? (Abbacus or Cray?) and
"You really expect me to tell you exactly where all the little Gold bars are?????"
At this point he is 100% sure there's a Ounce Gold bar in every computer waiting to be just picked out.... He just has to know where of is...

So I tell him "there's no Gold bars in computers. You have to look elsewhere to find the Little Gold Bars. I have a few, I put them in a small glass jar, will sell them one day......"
(Yes I do actually have some Little Gold Bars, they come from electrical contacts, rotary dial telephones are a good start)

Now he's going on about computer motherboards " How do you do them, or don't you know how???"
"Oh yeah, its easy, you chip off all the bits and put them in a pestel and mortar and grind them down".

(now this is what somebody else told me once, they were just 'taking the piss', but from that, I did know that they 'know how' to too. So I had a good laugh out of it anyway, not what they expected though....)

Doing the motions of grinding something in mortar & pestel (s****** s****** snort snort)

"Until its all ground up and a fine dust, then you keep doing it until its so fine, and your arm hurts and your wrists hurt and its all a fine fine dust.
And then you put it in a crucible (teknickle words help here) and heat it up till its red hot and, well you know how Golds heavy right? So the Gold sinks to the bottom and you let it cool down when your finished you break off the Gold part...."

This gets him thinking, I can see the steam. But its 'sounds' like it will work... in theory, because Gold actually is heavier than... bull****.

This gets him all antsee, he counters with
"Ha huh, I know how to do it, I seen it on YouTube, all they do is put it in a special acid and all the Gold comes out and that's how they do it"

"Yeah right, like bull****, some idiot on youtube does some scientifically stuff in his driveway with a beaker and a splash of acid and a blowtorch with a CPU and he gets Gold from it? I say its bull****". Did YOU see the Gold?
(I know the video he saw from what he told me, so I describe it back to him in truth, only he does not know that I know of that video.. But I'm right anyway)

"Oh well" he says "There's internet forums where you just ask and they tell you everything you need to know about getting the Gold".

"Yeah right" I say "Betyah if you do that, some Harry's going to come back and tell you to piss orf since you have no idea".

(Harry's a generic name I give to people and people in situations. from Harry Muff.
Ie a Cop is 'Dirty Harry'. A bad Cops a Dirty dirty Harry. . A female singer is Harry Debbie. I get my cars exhaust fixed at Harrys exhaust systems, by Harry Muffler. A country farmer is Harry Hickstick. A kid who is born into money and is never going to have to work in his life, is Harry Letterman.

. Its just a coincidence that Harry is actually going to do this on GRF...)

Now this has got him all bitter and twisted, well actually he started off like that, a 'Harry Haighter'.

Now he's stewing and spewing in his seat.
"But I know somebody who knows somebody who actually does get Gold from computers so he knows and you don't"

(I suddenly relise he has been talking to somebody who I have actually met while doing my scrapmetaling, somebody I don't actually like because he's competition at my scrap source and he does not give anything in return for this scrap to the owner. And I do.
And he dumps off scrapped CRT's there too.)

"Yeah right, betyah he's full of s&17,and betyah he wouldn't know where the Gold bars are at all, if so, why has he not told you?".
(Oh, the GOLD BARS again!)
"But all he has to do is ask"

(Ah, no, I'm not going to tell this ' Harry metal thief' about anything to do with escrap, let alone Gold bars. So that he can tell Harry hater what exactly to do, to get mighty rich of 2 computer boards stacked with (oh no!) Gold bars.)

So it goes on like this a bit. He will never change until he's looking face up at a plank of pine.
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Sometimes, and I have found, a lot of times. It just pays not to tell certain people certain things, all it does is give them the impression that they can do it, when they cannot, and when they fail, who's getting the blame?..

I am interested in how this works out. Does he pay to have it fixed, or drive around in a pool of sweat this summer? Mike

This youtube video shows how to remove dash to get at heater core on 95 escort, this will also get you to the evaporator.

https://youtu.be/W0qJhyNRHx0

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Originally Posted by miked

I am interested in how this works out. Does he pay to have it fixed, or drive around in a pool of sweat this summer? Mike

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He won't pay to have it fixed. He'll get in there and get it done. He is a very smart guy and I've seen him take on bigger jobs and get it done.

He was just being a d**k the other day.

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Originally Posted by alloy2

This youtube video shows how to remove dash to get at heater core on 95 escort, this will also get you to the evaporator.

https://youtu.be/W0qJhyNRHx0

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Thanks for posting the video.

I "might" show it to him.

My mom had an older escort and the heater core needed to be replaced. It took him 3 or 4 days but he pulled the dash, replaced the heater core and got everything back together and everything worked.

He'll do the same with the AC on this one. I'll just have to listen to him gripe while it's being done.

I dunno ... you figure it's a 20 year old Ford consumer grade car ? (Fifteen years is about the max here in the Northeast.)

If it's going out of service in the next year or two it wouldn't be a sin to see if he could get away with air conditioning system stop leak.

Of course .... if he's being a real horse's necktie you could tell him about it AFTER he replaced the evaporator core. >:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--3J7uROKrM

I agree with Scrappah. We used to own an Escort- they were an economy car in every sense of the word. I'd try a can or two of A/C fix and see if it does the trick. My old Buick uses one can per year. Might be worth a shot.

Im more amazed that he doesn't have a computer. I thought everyone did now days?

I haven't been around for a few years and thought I'd stop by with an update. My brother still doesn't have a computer but he finally got a smart phone and is still learning how to use it.

The 96 Escort did get fixed and he is still driving it when he's not working on it. ALLOY 2, I never showed him the video..lol.

I'll be back...