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This post was originally in "Other Matters" but it seems like no-one saw it there.

I have looked on the wiki and archive and I've not found what I think I need. Can someone help please?

We have a 1985 RHD DG 1.9 engined van. The blower motor is fine, as is the matrix and hoses. I'm just trying to do what our mechanic failed to do and fit a heater control cable properly - a task which lots of owners don't seem to want to do. Some people will live with a heater that doesn't work. Ours did - and I want it to work again.



I just bought a brand new cable from Brickwerks - part number is 00-252 265 473 A if it helps. In the photo, I hope you can see one end of the cable with yellow and red marks and that "tail" is about 5 cm long. The tail at the other end is approximately 10 cm long. Haynes says that 20mm of the sheathing should extend from the clamp behind the dash into the heater control opening. To my eyes, that's almost exactly the distance from the red marker to the end of the sheathing. Therefore this must be the dash end of the cable. Is that right?

One of the reasons I'm having to replace the existing cable is that the mechanic and I have taken different approaches to fitting the dash end of it, and it's ended up holding a shape that does not allow the cable to push back properly when selecting cold air using the slider. So, my other question is does the cable just lie across the top of the "fork" on the slider or would you pass the cable under the wider part of the "fork" once the end of the cable is in the hole in the narrow part of the "fork"? The reason I ask is that it seems a secure way to hold the cable in place and the right hand edge of the wider part of the "fork" has a tiny groove that looks as though it's intended to guide the cable.

Sorry this is wordy but so far I've spent 8 hours in/under the van wrangling with it and I'd really like it sorted. Please let me know if you would like a photo of the cable and "fork" setup I've struggled to describe clearly.

Many thanks!

Don't know if this helps - it's a pic from Bentleys of a diesel setup (they only seem to have air-cooled or diesel?!?)
I think it'd be lever 2 that you are interested in - however both cables seem to be mounted on their respective 'forks' in the same way .......

MidLifeCrisis wrote:Don't know if this helps - it's a pic from Bentleys of a diesel setup (they only seem to have air-cooled or diesel?!?)
I think it'd be lever 2 that you are interested in - however both cables seem to be mounted on their respective 'forks' in the same way .......

This helps a lot MidLifeCrisis - thank you. Haynes does give a value for the length of sheathing to have within the control opening but I don't think they show the position of the cable.

Wish me luck - I'm goin' in!!

Cheers

Chris

Mine has been stuck on "hot" for over a year, due to a knackered cable (the one to the valve). I have avoided attempting to do it because I reckon I will have to remove the dash to get at it sufficiently to replace it. I had the dash off a couple of years back, to replace the blower motor and don't really want to have to do it again. We are at the back end of summer now, so it won't really be an issue until May next year

Let us know how you get on.

It's taken me a while to write this, and sorry it's in the form of bullet points (I'm at work and rushing a bit). I've assumed everyone knows the spare wheel needs to come off and you can do this job lying in the spare wheel carrier (it's not comfortable so I hope you do it faster than I did)

. First, you don't need to take the dash out. Just the heater control panel, the stereo and the lower cowl just in front of the gear lever (we have a manual gearbox RHD van). It helps to take the instrument binnacle cover off to get more light on the job but it's not vital.



. If you're replacing a cable, it's a lot easier to pull it out from inside the cab. You'll need to unhook the end of the inner cable that is secured to the heater control valve under the van. You'll also need to remove whatever is currently securing the cable sheathing to the valve. It could be the original spring clip or a cable tie (which I had and which can be a bugger to cut off). At the dash end, you'll need to release the 6 mm bolt that holds the sheathing in a clamp before you can unhook the cable from the heater control lever. If you have a 6 mm spanner, it will make the job easier. It's too tight a space to work in with a socket.

. As far as access to the valve goes, I had a cable tie around the supply and return hoses to the heater matrix. I cut that off. There was also a cable tie securing both hoses to a strip of metal next to the gearbox linkage housing. I cut that off too. That gives better access to the valve and cable.



. You're working very close to the cooling fan, so at the very least do this job with a stone cold engine or better still disconnect the battery.

. Once you've pulled the old cable (and its ribbed outer cover) all the way out, feed the new one in from the cab through the rubber grommet in the floor. Don't try to feed the ribbed outer through the grommet because a) it's a struggle and b) it makes the cable harder to locate on the valve. Don't feed the rest of the cable behind the dash at this stage - leave it floppy to make attachment at the valve end easier. I know my photo shows it with the ribbed outer shoved in the grommet - that was someone else's work...



. If you see the photo with the two hoses and the valve (above), it helps to have the front of the valve (with the lever) as close to horizontal as you can so that you have the cable straight sitting across the valve. The 'kinked' end of the cable attaches to the lever as you can see in the fabulous photo I've borrowed from Cardomain.com. I've not bent mine - just kept it as you see it here. I've failed spectacularly (twice) to get the proper clip (available from Brickwerks) to fit so I've used a heavy cable tie. I've not nipped it as tight as I can yet (the sheathing moves a little bit) and I'm letting it bed in before I do that. At this end of the clip as you see it in the photo, there's a slot in the valve and threading even a quite beefy cable tie (the wheeltrim ties from Wilkos are perfect) is not so hard. I'm clumsy. I've looked at this photo often - it's a great help when you're testing.



. Back in the cab, pull the rest of the cable through behind the dash, over where the stereo head unit will be and try not to twist the cable as you pull it to the lever. The cable as supplied has a little kink in the 'cab' end which would hold in an ideal world. However, to fit it like that, you'd need to go in from above and then access would be a headache. If you can see from my photo, I bent the last 4 mm of the cable 90 degrees and it drops into the hole in the lever from above and works ok. It's very important to clamp the cable so at least 20 mm of the sheathing protrudes beyond the clamp and into the heater control opening (does that make sense?). That bit really is critical, or you'll have a heater control that springs back from the 'cold' setting and does nowt! First photo shows how your cable may look when new and second photo shows how I bent it. You'd want to do the same, I'm pretty sure.





. While my 'fix' settles down I'm leaving the heater control panel off and I'm using the heater control gently so the cable doesn't pop off either end. Two weeks in, it's looking good.

I hope that helps someone - bit of a labour of love. Any comments welcome.

Cheers
Chris

Update 4 October 2015

I finally got round to refitting the heater control panel, knobs and rotary blower control today. Not because I thought the fix wouldn't work, just plain old laziness. A couple of tips:

* I smeared a little vegetable oil on the two pins that locate the heater control panel in the dash (by the way, the pins are bottom left and top right of the panel to help you when you're taking it out). I also smeared some on the control levers to ease the knobs back on. Can't see any point straining things more than absolutely necessary.
* To make it easier to get the knobs back in place, I placed the levers so they were not aligned one above the other, but not too fanned out either - you want to be able to see them all. I only located the pins on the control panel back into the dash once I had the knobs most of the way back on the levers. The I secured the control panel, brought the levers to the central position and pushed the knobs all the way onto the levers.

Sounds a bit OCD but it makes the job a lot easier and reduces the chances of breaking the heater control panel -I've not seen any for sale anywhere!

This could be really helpful for me. When I got my van it was missing the 2nd from bottom lever. I've bought the lever & managed to slide it on but it makes a bit of a grinding noise when sliding to the left and doesn't appear to do anything. When I look in there it looks like the cable is curving / arching rather than horizontal.

1.Do you think it's not been put on correctly?

2. What does this particular lever do?

3. I'm assuming I can take the front cover off independently & possibly straighten & lube that cable..,

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Also the fan blower switch didn't work but I pushed it in and fiddled off & on a bit and it's working again (bit of a squeal but ok now) the highest setting doesn't work. Do peeps think this is bad contacts on the switch & it's a matter of time before the motor gives up? It's a 1990...

Cheers

There's an online manual that explains what the heater things do - I just remember to push them all to the right for windscreen demist, 2nd from bottom depends how many levers on the control

My van was totally missing the valve altogether with the end of the control cable just dangling down. So I have a new valve and clip to fit soon...not particularly looking forward to that one. ..

I've a pdf of the Caravelle owners' manual if anyone needs it - pm me.

Only three levers on that and I'm still confused. Fully right is demist, the rest are just distractions to try on long journeys right?

Or potential reasons to fill in on insurance forms.. How exactly did you drift across to the other side of the road

You what - what medication are you on?

Thanks oldie. I found this from go westy which I've seen before but couldn't find again until now: http://www.gowesty.com/tech-article-details.php?id=83" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So the 2nd from bottom of the 4 levers is to direct air to feet & low down. I'll just wear big socks for now until the blower packs up...

Oldiebut goodie wrote:

Oh wow - finally the levers are making a bit of sense. So the upper lever controls the upper vents, the lower (3rd) lever controls the lower vents, and the one in the middle controls the temperature of them all. So just one thing that eludes me - what's the little red section, about 1cm long and 2cm from the far right position, in the wedge shaped graphic above the lower lever?

Ok I think part of my confusion is the helpful graphics on my early version. Top slider has a choice of two down arrows on the left, one down arrow in the middle one up arrow on the right. These bear no resemblance to the instructions above. This is compounded by the fact that moving this lever makes f all tangible difference- e.g I can't feel any airflow of significance from any vent with the blower on full blast. I guess it makes more sense with the thinking that it's for the screen.

The other two non heat related levers are for either the two squares or for the four squares. Again two square and four squares are pretty meaningless symbols. Again moving them doesn't do anything detectable by holding my hand in front of vents. Now it's winter I can feel heat and can get the screen to clear but the rest of the levers are pointless to me - assumed this was a 'feature'. I'd love to be able to feel air coming out like a normal vehicle but it's never worked that way..