Non AC Heat-Only Box Disassembly

[t5montecarlo]

I am trying to disassembly my heat-only box and having some difficulty. It needs to be completely disassembled to thoroughly clean, because it was inhabited by mice and smells bad.

A lever for one of the doors needs to be remove from the door in order to separate 2 halves of the box. The hole in the lever is D shaped, so I am assuming it is pressed on.

I have read that some of you have disassembled your heat-only box. How did you remove this lever from the shaft?

Here are some pictures. There is a drop of WD-40 in the end of the lever.

 

[t5montecarlo]

Am I entering into uncharted territory?

 

[t01blaze]

I'd like to know too. I've been meaning to do the same thing to my box. When you figure it out let me know :lol:

 

[t5montecarlo]

A little heat did the trick. I used the small nozzle on my Mapp gass torch and bent a piece of sheet metal to protect the box from the heat. After heating with a small flame for a short while, it easily pried off with a flat screw driver.

There used to be a thread on the sealant used in and around the heat and AC boxes, but it has been deleted. We need an HVAC topic that does not get pruned.

http://maliburacing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=117666

There seems to be 2 different types of seals for the parts that disassemble on the inside. Some appear to be like a semi hardened plumbers putty (hard now due to being old, I suppose), and it some other places, it appears there is a thin gasket.

Additionally, there is a black, very hard sealer that was applied along the upper edge of the box and around the wiring harness at the bottom.

I was considering using closed cell foam for the inside seals or something like plumbers putty or electricians putty. I have a new replacement foam gasket for the box-to-the-firewall, but don't know what to use in place of the supplemental hard sealer at the top and around the wiring harness.

My 1978 and 1986 Service/Shop Manual refers to applying strip caulk to the top and sides of the box, where it meets the firewall. That is probably what was used inside, that looks like old putty.

What product do you suggest for this strip caulk? I suppose the hard black stuff was used instead of strip caulk (it looks like it was applied with a spatula?

 

[t5montecarlo]

For the benefit of this forum and others who want to attempt to disassemble one of these boxes, here are pictures of the parts after I had cleaned them (the top screen was not cleaned yet)

I have removed all of the rotten foam from the doors, but haven't yet applied new foam.