Need a little advice before I break out the crowbar!

Have got this far with removing the heater unit to dismantle and free flaps, swap Distribution motor and put in an Audi matrix, oh and remove front carpet for an intensive clean.
I've removed or dislocated all ducts and hoses, taken out 2 bolts top rear and 2 underneath on floor, but on trying to lift out heater (moving toward rear of car and rotating to clear remainder of dash frame) I get little movement and a metallic graunching noise from the back somewhere, which I'm guessing is the evaporator.
Is there another fixing or two that I've missed or is there a technique, apart from brute force, that I should be using?
Any advice or "how I did it" pictures welcome!

There's a screw which you can see by peering down the top vent holes, that holds the front and back halves together, and means you don't need to disturb the air-con gubbins.

Goes without saying, don't drop the screw into the depths, it'd probably be a pain to get back out.

We (ok, Marty but I was watching REALLY hard) took the side vents off too... a bit more space to play with.

There's a screw which you can see by peering down the top vent holes, that holds the front and back halves together, and means you don't need to disturb the air-con gubbins.
Is that all that holds the heater to the evaporator? That could be the secret!

We (ok, Marty but I was watching REALLY hard) took the side vents off too... a bit more space to play with
By side vents Morat, I'm assuming you mean the ducts that are dangling down each side to feed air to rear?
They're not attached- just sitting there, but I see what you mean.

I'm thinking I've missed unclipping the back (aircon) section of the box, then taking out just the front! Never having seen one of these in bits, I assumed that it was taken out in its entirety?

This is as far as mine came apart...

Might well be my problem then Morat!
I'm trying to get the whole thing out, when, as can clearly be seen in your pic, I need to split off the back section. From your close observation of the work, is it just the one screw (centre top on evaporator housing) that holds the two parts together?

I think there were some under the bottom edge as well, not sure though...
Hey, it was bloody cold!

Blimey! To get to screws in the bottom you'd need to drill up through the floor to get at them, so I hope not!
The cold was to give you the incentive to get the heater sorted and if it had been warm you wouldn't have appreciated the toasty end result :)
Your pic of the evap housing really helps though. Now I can see where it splits I can work from there and the heater won't end up looking like the headlight I removed...

Pretty sure from what I've read elsewhere, it's just that single screw that holds the two halves together. Remove that, and you should be able to hinge the front away relatively easily.

You can just about see the screw hole in Morats picture above.

Thanks Miah. Will see what happens when I hit the workshop later.

Yes, it's one screw. If you try and remove the while thing, then you would need to disconnect the AC lines/de-pressurise that system.

You will probably have to remove those side vents to get it out aswell, as they'll most likely catch and cause a lot of swearing. The RH one also would get in the way when trying to plumb in the new heater core.

Thanks Marty- I did read your previous posts on this where you said the evap was left in place, which was why I didn't want to force anything. Couldn't see what was holding the two parts together though.
The side vents are unfixed so it'll be no problem to pop them out. The material seems to have retained its flexibility, rather than become brittle with age, but I like to avoid tempting fate. Still, they don't call it duct tape for nothing.
More irritating is that all of the pictures I took of cable routes when dismantling have failed due to my phone camera changing its settings without me noticing, so I foresee a bit of swearing and experimentation when I come to put it all back together!

Damn! One stupid hidden self tapper was all that was keeping it in.
Now out.
Thanks guys.

Interesting slippage of gluey foam accounts for the distribution motor being stalled at 80% :)

I wonder how long it has been like that? I can't really imagine it moving once installed, but if it stopped the flap it must have been doing so for ages..

The dash has definitely been out before. A couple of broken tabs and some telltale holes drilled in various plastics for screw access as well as 1 missing top pad bolt (which I found inside the heater).
The foam was stuck, or rather not stuck, at the section where the foam jam was, with a bit of additional double sided tape, which is why the bit that's slipped stayed in 1 piece and glued itself to the flap.
That's an easy fix anyway. All new foam going in.
Distribution motor is OK, feedback pot isn't so have ordered a replacement- 3 replacements actually as all of the pots are a bit crackly. Another £2.10 invested in the car.
Carpet cleaning today while waiting for those to arrive. I suspect it'll take 2 or 3 days to dry out anyway.

If you're testing on a power supply, don't drive the motors are 9 or 12v, try nearer 6-7 and see if it still manages to turn the flaps.

Was talking with Marty a while back, and when I did my first P38, I freed up the flaps enough that the motor could drive them when tested on a 9v battery. Back in the car though and on a HEVAC unit, it measured at 6v-ish and didn't have enough grunt to move the distribution flaps. Can't remember if we decided whether the HEVAC outputs using PWM or if its just 6v, but either way it wasn't enough without freeing the box up some more.

Thanks Sloth. I'll go back, re-test and aim to get down to 6v. You didn't happen to notice the current when moving the flaps at 6v did you?

Afraid not :( I'd say though, if you can't move the big grey cog with relative ease (with the motor removed obviously), I'd look at splitting the box and looking at each 'bearing' point.

The biggest culprit for causing the binding is the flaps that are on the 'front' of the box, that control the air to the footwell vents. Remove the little cog that joins those to the big grey gear and it'll probably move a lot more freely!

Are the cogs and gears just a (tight) push fit on the shafts or do they require something more than a tweak with a plastic lever to get them off? Once again, don't want to break anything!
BTW, Dist motor is a bit intermittent (no load) at between 6 and 9v. Runs for a while then slows down and stops! I'll probably drop a new Dist motor in just to be safe. Don't want a do-over on that...