My heater hoses are old and are not really the color I want, so I plan to replace them.

I have drained the coolant out of the radiator, though I have reason to suspect there is still coolant in the heater hoses close to the actual heater. How do I get this coolant out so that I can remove those hoses without having to worry about coolant spilling all over my floor boards? What if I stuck a shop-vac to the end of the bottom hose and sucked out the coolant, would that work or would I risk damaging something?

I can reach the hoses with a screw driver to remove the clamps, so I am going to do it that way rather than remove the whole heater which works fine.

 

Anybody have any ideas for making sure coolant doesn't spill all over my carpet?

 

Towels

 

when the hoses are off there is only minimal amount of water in there.
Towels wil be good enough
if you have the hoses disconnected on engine side and dropped down you might even be ablke to pull the heater with the hoses still attached. No spillage then

 

exactly. Cut the old hoses about a foot forward of the firewall and plug the hoses with something. then when you disassemble the heater box you can pull the hose stubs through the firewall and no leakage.

when you install, buy a new heater core. it is cheap insurance. attach your hose to the new heater core, assemble the heater box, feed the new hoses through the firewall and reassemble.

 

I guess I just can't find any info on the complicity of removing the heater box, and my repair manuals don't seem to help much. I see one bolt on the right hand side of it. What else do I have to remove?

 

What James said.

 

I use a shot of air from the compressor to blow the remaining coolant out just before removal. Usually leaves the core and hoses dry.

I have never been successful in removing the hoses without removing the heater box from the car. Once you are that far into it, replace the core.

 

It will be very difficult to replace the hoses without replacing the box. There is one bolt on the right hand side and 4 or 5 on the firewall. undo the firewall ones, then the one on the interior and pull the hoses through.

You will probably have to remove your glovebox or half the dash to be able to get the heater box out, at least you have to on the 69. Good luck

 

You aren't trying to use Hayes or Chilton, are you? Effing useless. "Step 1) Remove heater. Step 2) Install heater." Get the factory service manual, VERY complete.

4reboy is right, detach the 4 nuts around the heater motor, detach the heater motor wires, detach the hoses from the engine, remove the screw above the fresh air door, the heater falls down, detach the 3 Bowden cables and defogger hoses, and remove the heater from the car. In your case, since you are only after the hoses, leave the Bowden cables and defroster attached, remove the water hoses, install the new hose from the engine side, reinstall the heater, trim and attach the hoses to the engine, as shown below. The whole job should take under an hour.