Hellya double post..."Redundancy"! ...always have a back up plan. I have to laugh, I've gain more knowledge regardign that little cable than working the counter part pusher at the dealership. Unless you know the name or part number they tell you to turn it in for repairs. Thanks again gents!

 

The name is "Gear Selector Indicator Cable".

 

I'm in the process of removing my dash to replace the heater core. 2000 D. I've taken the left and right steering wheel supports loose, but I'm not sure which two remaining screws Duranged408 is talking about removing before the steering column can be dropped. It looks like there are several bolts holding the column in place. And the weird thing was I started to loosen what I thought was a 10mm nut and it's not a 10mm. It must be an imperial size. Getting late last night and stopped. Any guidance would be appreciated. Just trying to not remove anymore than I have too.

 

I'm a novice and fair-weather shade tree mechanic and only fix things when they break and only did this once, so I can't recall all that I did. The one thing I broke while disabling the power steering column to lower it from the dash was break the small cable that indicates what gear you're in [P R N 1 2 D] on the column dash board. However, 2000 maybe digital...so no worries for you. All in all, break out the flash light and get into contortion mode and take your time, because the last thing you want to break is wire or electronic connector. email me ( carlmoreno@hotmail.com) and I'll send you the instructions I used to check off.....and I never completely disconnected the main head connector under steering wheel, much less remove the whole dashboards. I just leaned it forward as much as possible and unhindged the passenger side to remove the housing unit that houses the heat core and ac evap (which by the way you should replace as well in the event you have it out already. Oh! There's a hidden 5th screw in the center of the firewall engine compartment, down low, by the transmission dip-stick, that only a small wrist can get to. That needs to be taken off to take housing unit off from the inside. Good luck!

 

Might be too old of a thread but I'm adding n e way. I found it really interesting that 3 cores go so quickly,then I read a 12.5 yr old core was fine. I did a nightmare core in a Mercury tracer( I know it has nothing to do with a "D",it's just a core reference)
I actually told the customer to sell the car rather than fix it since it was a total dash strip for access....anyway,this was the second time in 11 months that this car needed it.Here's what I found.They had a v/c gasket changed at Sears auto.When they did it for some novice reason the guy disconnected a body ground strap and didn't renonn afterwards.The result was a grounding through the heater core that wore it down in about 5 months,thay let the car sit until he saved enough to do the core again.....just something to look at.I noticed ground straps on my D at the pass side firewall that were left unattached and it reminded me of the core....sorry for the long post guys

 

This is something i never wanna do again.... started this after a long night (5:45 am return home) out. woke up a 11 back killing me, started at 1 finished at 6 and back is on fire. but it's done and I have heat now....

 

Man I hope you swapped the evap and blower motor at the same time. Yuck!

Cheers for getting it all back together. Sucks doesn't it.

IndyD

 

+1...job well done,Might take a few nights of recovery but I bet you're psyched.
Plus you'll be toasty.Last one I did for us my wife had what she called "The Extra Special Present" (heehee) Only cuz we could see and were'nt shivering anymore....
Indy's right though,hope you don't ever need to go in there again

 

yeah Indy I swapped everything in there. what sucks is I called out of work today couldn't move this morning so muscle relaxers pain meds and my heating pad and icy hot. Sucks having a herniated disk (L4-L5) right where you bend plus having your axis (top bone in the spine) rotated. i used to love working on cars now i dread it. between the water pump Saturday and the heater core Sunday I'm shot.

Laz yeah well my back sometimes gets in the way of that too.

BTW have a write up and pics for the water pump replacement. just need to upload it.

 

i changed the heater core in my 98 and the dash did not have to come out all the way just drop the stering colum four bolts and unplug all wires might lose the cable to tell u what gear ur in drive nutral revers stuff like that but all in all not that bad the four bolts in the fire wall sucked