is there a way to swap the auto climate control out for a cable operated system or is everything like the heater box,etc different?
I believe its basically a complete dash swap. It isn't the easiest/quickest conversion.
The heater box, controls, & wiring is all different. The best way to do this is find a donor car and pull the dash with all components, wiring, heater box, etc... Make sure the gauge cluster is the same as yours (digital or buttstuffog). The dash wiring harness unplugs under the hood by the firewall on the drivers side. I have done this about 10 years ago to our cougar. Getting rid of the electronic auto climate was one of the best things that I have done.
. Time to find that 86 cougar...
I deleted mine, heater core housing, blower, controls, all of it. Still torn on wether to pull and swap the dash harness with one from a manual heater car, or just leave the wiring there. Buncha extry stuff I don't want or plan to use, such as the premium sound wiring/connections, heater stuff, etc.
Thinking I'll tape it all up out of the way, and just leave it.
No i'm not putting heat back in the car. A friend cut out some metal plates to go over the AC holes in the firewall...gonna have him cut me some more for the 2 heater box holes, and silicone them, and find a non-permanent way of fastening them, should I ever decide to put a heater back in.
The easiest way to swap would be to find a donor car, as mentioned, with the exact same layout as your dash, inregards to gauges, stereo, wnd whatnot. Otherwise, you'll have to repin your cluster wiring, and probably add wiring to your stereo, unless you don't have the prem. sound package.
Probably one of the most involved projects to do in these cars.....Claude (CougarSE) did it a while back. I give him props because I wouldn't want to do it.
I have become so good with dash assembly and reassembly I could probably do it with my eyes closed. It's amazing the projects I will tackle now after doing them a few times. It seems so intimidating at first doing such a major disassembly but I am no longer afraid of projects like these.
I just don't see the point. Then again, I've never had an issue with my EATC....