Suburban Rear Heat & AC removal/installation/compatability

Howdy. My 87 Suburban did not come with rear heat or AC, but it does have factory in-dash AC. There's a guy parting one locally that supposedly has both, and I'm going to check it out this week. However, in doing some reading in old threads here, it looks like the rear heat was a completely separate unit from the AC? The AC is an overhead unit, and the heater was a floor-mount? Did some have one and not the other? With both, would there then be 4 lines running front to back? Does the AC tie in up front or is it a completely separate unit?
Other than power wiring and the control switches up front, is everything else pretty obvious as far as what I would need to remove to get everything? Any tricks or should it all bolt out pretty easily?
Lastly the parts rig is an 89, does that make any difference? Anything else to watch out for or is it pretty straightforward? All tips and advice appreciated, thanks...

My '89 has rear ac only. It seems like the heater units aren't that common, I've only seen pictures of them. Yes, the ac is tied in to the front system. Removing one would be pretty straightforward, the only part that might be tricky is where the rear lines enter the cabin at the back corner. It will look like this but I'm not sure how they come out.



I think I remember @89Suburban removed his ac from the back, maybe he will have some input when he checks in.

Those lines from that picture run up the farthest back, passenger side pillar, behind a trim piece. Then up into the ac housing and into a condenser up there.

here are a few shoddy pics of the rear heater parts:

Reviving this thread, as I would like to add rear AC as well. I can see from the diagrams on of the parts sites that the compressor lines are different, allowing the rear lines to tie in. I have not been able to find a donor close by to pull it all from. Could a hose shop make the hard lines to run from front to back without it costing a fortune? I had one with rear AC several years back and remember having to get one of the rear hard/rubber lines repaired at a local hose shop.

Sometimes I have seen just interior the housings and internals with those lines available.

I looked into this several years ago, a local hose shop said it would be no problem to make new hoses to the rear. It would be flexible lines with the appropriate ends for connection.

I bought new GM hard lines in '06 I believe. They came as two pieces rather than one (for shipping and install purposes) which was nice. However, I only got about 5 years out of them before one corroded and blew out. That's why I wanted to go with hoses on the next go around. It was also proven to work well on many conversion vans of the 80's and 90's.

bucket said:

I looked into this several years ago, a local hose shop said it would be no problem to make new hoses to the rear. It would be flexible lines with the appropriate ends for connection.

I bought new GM hard lines in '06 I believe. They came as two pieces rather than one (for shipping and install purposes) which was nice. However, I only got about 5 years out of them before one corroded and blew out. That's why I wanted to go with hoses on the next go around. It was also proven to work well on many conversion vans of the 80's and 90's.

Click to expand...

Corroded,did you evacuate it?

Ricko1966 said:

Corroded,did you evacuate it?

Click to expand...

Yeah. It was a victim of salt and galvanic corrosion. It was at one of the factory retaining clamps.

bucket said:

Yeah. It was a victim of salt and galvanic corrosion. It was at one of the factory retaining clamps.

Click to expand...

Ahh got it .

If anyone is interested in a full suburban rear ac I have one down in houston that I’m about to remove. Just need to figure out how to disconnect it from the front unit and plug it off

76burb said:

If anyone is interested in a full suburban rear ac I have one down in houston that I’m about to remove. Just need to figure out how to disconnect it from the front unit and plug it off

Click to expand...

Is the fan housing and mounting in good condition?? If so I'd be very interested since mine "works" but the fan is held on with zip-ties and prayers....all the original plastic has become brittle and cracked apart.

I have both a white and a tan fan housing. I’m going to uninstall this weekend

76burb said:

I have both a white and a tan fan housing. I’m going to uninstall this weekend

Click to expand...

I'm not overly picky on color - my interior is blue but they make pretty decent plastic sprays now that work pretty well and my interor isn't show-car pristine anyway (no headliner cloth for example - just the carboard backer which I may also just paint blue and call it done).

My rear AC fan runs well, but moves very little air because all the plastic ducting is either broken or missing. The fan mountings themselves are almost all broken off and its really held in with zip ties for the most part.

My Suburban is 1989, so there may be fitment differences which would possibly make this not doable, but I'd love to have a chance to get the rear air blowing again.

YakkoWarner said:

I'm not overly picky on color - my interior is blue but they make pretty decent plastic sprays now that work pretty well and my interor isn't show-car pristine anyway (no headliner cloth for example - just the carboard backer which I may also just paint blue and call it done).

My rear AC fan runs well, but moves very little air because all the plastic ducting is either broken or missing. The fan mountings themselves are almost all broken off and its really held in with zip ties for the most part.

My Suburban is 1989, so there may be fitment differences which would possibly make this not doable, but I'd love to have a chance to get the rear air blowing again.

Click to expand...

Hey Yakko, I'm not a fan of the rear ac fan in burb, I thought about installing a few 120 or 140mm pc fans on the back of rear ac evaporator. May be worth a try for if you can wire it to ac harness

dd1990 said:

Hey Yakko, I'm not a fan of the rear ac fan in burb, I thought about installing a few 120 or 140mm pc fans on the back of rear ac evaporator. May be worth a try for if you can wire it to ac harness

Click to expand...

I like the idea - and I just happen to have a whole box of various 12V PC fans sitting around. OF course we're just now getting to where the A/C isn't needed as much, but its worth fiddling with....