Heater box

[jemt1234]

Hi
i have a S1 RHD FHC 4.2 etype.

The heater flap cable comes out of the hole near the heater valve and loops above the washer bottle and connects.
All well and good. (photos 1 and 2).

when I move the flap by using the control in the dash, the cable draws neatly through and the flap moves. (photo 3 and 4)
However, when I move the dash control the otherway to 'push' the cable away and reverse the motion of the flap, it wont 'push' the cable.
I can move the flap by hand to reset it without problem.
I'm obviously doing something stupid but I can seem to find photos etc of how it should work.

All help/ideas gratefully received.

thanks
Jem

[AshM]

Hi Jem

Firstly, a caveat - my car is a late S2 RHD FHC so it may not be the same.

My cable for the ‘flap control’ comes straight out of the bulkhead behind clamp so it is in a straight line.

I wonder if you have a cable which is unnecessarily long (due to its exit from the wrong hole in the bulkhead) and this is causing the inefficiency in its ability to push the lever forward?

But, might be different on the S1.

The spring is different on mine too - I don’t have the long spring on the outer side of the heater box. But again, that may be model differences.

Picture of mine.

Hope it helps.

Cheers
Ash

[tim wood]

My S1 and current S1.5 reflect exactly as described by Ash. Straight cable run.
Have a good look at the spring assembly, that in your picture looks incorrect
The cable is a single wire push/ pull type not a Bowden multi strand type.

[jemt1234]

thanks for that.
I did think about the cable route being straight, but if it is straight in the engine bay, then there has to be a curve in the dashboard as the heater control in the dash is in line with the heater valve and not heater box.
there isn't a lot of space to bend the cable between the dashboard and the bulkhead.

[Mich7920]

Hi Jem,

I'll work on the lever.
When the flap is closed, the lever seems to be too hight for a good return mouvement.
Your spring seems to be above the axle instead of below
Unscrew and turn anti clock wise the lever for some mm and see if it's better.
After you could change the routing if you want.

Mich

[jemt1234]

also found this picture in the Factory manual, (for a LHD 3.8) but the cable is shown looped in the engine bay.



If the cable is to bend outside of the engine bay, it will have to be between the bulkhead and the inner bulkhead as there is no room before the inner bulkhead

[Robbiee]

I think the problem is that when the “return spring “ is at full stretch the lever it acts on is just beyond “neutral point” thus acting to keep it locked open
You need to loosen the lever and rotate it, retighten so that the spring always acts on the lever

[tim wood]

The cable does indeed move from the hole directly behind the control lever to exit through the bulkhead via a hole directly leading to the connection at the heater box. It curves in the space between the bulkheads. Quite a task to reroute it. If I recall I did mine whilst the glove box was out whilst undertaking the RHD conversion.

I appreciate that this differs from the diagram above but on my current and previous cars this is how it was. Both these were 4.2

[jemt1234]

thanks all for your help - much appreciated.

some adjustment of the bracket on the spindle that the spring attaches to so it is move like 8oclock at full stretch and some lubrication of the flap spindle got it working.

Now I can adjust the cable route, since the glove box and dash top are off I might be able to manage it.

Why is every job so fiddly on an etype?

[Robbiee]

Great..yes 8 o’clock sound perfect

[Mich7920]