Heater cable replacement?

[BavHyena]

I broke the control cable on the temperature lever for my heater. I can't for the life of me figure out how to remove the controls so that I can replace the cable. I tried to shimmy it out the back, but the heater box is in the way. Searching online, I only found information for E9's which seems to be a simple job. Do I have to remove the heater box to access the controls? Has anyone successfully removed the vent controls without removing the heater box? Thanks in advance.

 

[daicos35]

IMHO you will struggle to fix it without removing the whole unit.

Do you have ac or heater only?

If heater only, not as big a job as you think.

Pop out the window switches, locate the 2 screws that hold the shift or auto console on, remove. remove bottom of tray, 3 more screws, whol console comes out.

Then , 4 m6 bolts, to get the heater control unit out / loose.

See if you can fix from there.

If not, undo the heater pipes in the engine bay to the heater box, then 4 more bolts that hold whole heating unit to the body (surrounding the rectangular opening back into the engine bay behind the bulkhead).

Easy!!

Patience and time..

Buy a new blower unit, and resistor while it is out, new foam surround, and foam where the heater pipes go back to engine bay.

If you feeing really perkey, carefully split the heater box, and replace the heater core..

The heater will at least be good for the rest of your / our lifetime!!

 

[eriknetherlands]

Not sure if e3 and e9 are ide tical , but it may help you to check the faq on the e9 heater box rebuild post from me. It shows you how to get the heater box and controls out.

It may also help you to determine what is necessary to remove to be able to just replace a single part.

Fyi: I doubt if the cable broke, as (in my car at least) they were solid wires; bloody strong. Perhaps it's possible that a nut came loose?

 

[BavHyena]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies!

@eriknetherlands , I did see your post during my search. Very impressive work! Unfortunately, it seems the e3 and e9 dashes are different enough to make removal difficult. My initial thought was that one of the clips that hold the cable housing came loose and thought it would be a quick, easy fix. Hours later with the console removed, lots of wires from a previous alarm and stereo removed, clock and dash faces removed, I could peek into the vent control and see that the cable was indeed broken. The strange thing is that, instead of being straight, the exposed end of the cable had a squared off "C" shape bent into it. That led to the cable being subject to bending at each sharp corner of the "C" every time the lever was moved and eventually led to its failure.

@daicos35 , unfortunately, I do have air conditioning. It looks like I'll have to remove the AC unit, then remove the heater box. All just to replace a broken cable! Well, I was planning on updating the AC eventually, so I guess the time is now.

 

[BavHyena]

Victory!

So I got the AC unit out, and as I was trying to remove the heater box, I noticed that the foam tape that seals it in place was (or turned into) adhesive. Gentle prying wouldn’t budge it, and more forceful prying threatened breakage.

After much dejected staring, I figured disconnecting the cables from the box might give me enough flexibility to rotate the vent controls and shimmy it out the side.

And much to my surprise, it worked!

The last picture shows the broken end of the cable. What I can’t figure out is why the cable is bent that way. I supposed the heater flaps could have been jammed and the lever forced, causing the cable to bend, but the flaps seemed pretty smooth and easy to actuate. Hmm…

 

[bluecoupe30!]

You need a new Bowden Cable. Only place I could find to help, when I rebuilt my heater box, couple years ago, is : prdesignsf.com. Great people, BIG help! Good luck. Mike

 

[BavHyena]

Well, what started out as a simple cable replacement has progressed to this.

 

[Coast Motor Werk]

It's a job, I highly recommend you remove the whole box, disassemble and lube everything. The cable probably broke due to the door becoming tight. Replace all foam with new(can buy on Amazon). Have the heater core cleaned and leak tested or repaired. The sealing foam to the firewall can be purchased at Wallothnesch.