1974 Bus - Too Cold for no heat

Emily's Owner · Post by **Emily's Owner** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:05 pm

I've had issues with the heater cables breaking somewhere along the length of tubing under the bus for some time and we have yet to isolate the hangup. My short term solution has been just to crawl under the bus and wire open the heater flap on the drivers side. So I finally did this a couple of days ago (couldn't handle the freezing cold any longer), and I still don't get any heat. Am I missing something else to wire open. There's no air flow whatsoever coming out of any of the vents. Suggestions? Emily is a '74 Transporter......

LiveonJG · Post by **LiveonJG** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:18 pm

The heating system is quite simple. As long as your duct work is intact and your control boxes are functional, you should have some air flow up front. Are you sure the control boxes are in working order? What happens if you open the passenger side control box? Another possibility is blockage in the vents. Could you have a nest in there? That pretty much covers it. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

-John

spiffy · Post by **spiffy** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:27 am

This may sound simple but is the fan working and the hoses fitted snug?

LiveonJG · Post by **LiveonJG** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:38 am

spiffy wrote:This may sound simple but is the fan working and the hoses fitted snug?

Even without the booster fan, you'll see some warm air flow as long as the boxes are open and the ducts are clear.

-John

Emily's Owner · Post by **Emily's Owner** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:56 am

Everything under the bus appears to be intact without any gaping holes and such. Next step is to swing by a car wash and use on of their extra strength vacuums and see if I can dislodge anything.....

Post by **Amskeptic** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:35 am

Emily's Owner wrote:Everything under the bus appears to be intact without any gaping holes and such. Next step is to swing by a car wash and use on of their extra strength vacuums and see if I can dislodge anything.....

Be more scientific. Give yourself a talking-to ("I LIKE the cold so I am going to overdress and crawl around in it). Drive to dry concrete (I use unvisited car wash bays)
Remove black plastic accordians from heater valves. Start engine and let it idle with heater dashboard levers up/off! as you crawl under the bus and pull the levers forward as your other hand feels for a decent blast of heat as you open the valve. You may find that the flapper deals have disassembled themselves. There are TWO flappers in there, separated by a spring and held together as an assembly with a pin. If the pin breaks, the lever may act fine on the outside but the flappers block everything up.
If you get good airflow and the heater valves shut on and off nicely, then go ahead and move the car over to the vacuums and leave the accordians off while you check out airflow through the ducts. I would use compressed air and backflush so debris does not go into the interior but out under the car near the transaxle.
When you are done, you can rewire your levers open under the bus or put in fresh new heater cables and enjoy that glorious light action of simply pulling the levers down from the driver's seat and feeling that delightfully warm breeze at your feet and coming up from the defrosters.
Colin

Emily's Owner · Post by **Emily's Owner** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:17 pm

Since I'm not attending the Unsuperbowl, maybe I'll do that as my project during Superbowl.....My bus used to have fabulous heat, and with the cable hang ups, I haven't really fussed with it much in the last few years.

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

1974 Bus - Too Cold for no heat

1974 Bus - Too Cold for no heat