Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:05:37 -0700
Reply-To: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: A/C? Pfui! Need a good fan
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinvk3Lnc5enlpNvZuQBW0ZBVm1NOl6DN190tzEG@mail.gmail.com>
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Prior to mid 87 the hoses for the end vents come off the heater box
right near the opening that faces the front grill. There is no provision
for any adjustment of the air flow to those hoses. Whatever pressure the
forward motion of the van puts into the heater box opening is all that
is available to come out of those vents. This would only be outside air
temp air.
From mid 87 on the hoses connect to a different spot on the heater box,
about as far from the front of the van as they could. In that spot they
can only get whatever pressure the forward motion puts into the box but
only after that pressure passes through the heater core and fan. Thus
the air can now be heated by the heater core, but in trade for the
reduced flow seemingly made inevitable by the partial obstruction of the
heater.
For some period of time such as maybe 86-89 the boxes were built with
both hose locations molded into the box but the hose opening was only
drilled out for whichever hose location was to be used. The hoses
themselves differ in size and shape and can NOT be moved from the
location they were built for. The other type hose is needed to use the
other hose location.
In both cases the amount of air that comes out of the end vents can be
reduced by opening any of the 3 levers that control flow to OTHER
location. There is no central lever that directly controls the end dash
vent flow. It can only be directly controlled at the vents themselves,
and indirectly by how much flow is shared with other outlets
There is no mystery to this once you hold both types of heater box in
your hands and look closely. By the same token there is no mystery about
the mid 87 switch as the ETKA shows what vin# the switch took place at
by the change in part numbers for the different hose setup. I have only
looked at this for North American market vehicles so it is possible that
vehicles delivered in other markets diff.
We covered all this ground on this list many years ago and a few times
since. I have owned many 86 and 87 vans as well as other years and back
then noted that my early 87 had the same as my 86 while my later 87 had
the different setup.
Of course with all the dead heater fans and cores over the years it is
likely that some people have swapped working units from other years into
a year that originally had another type.
Mark
Jake de Villiers wrote:
> I tried Mark's LLRR settings on the way home from work in Dixie with the
> Behr Indash AC and got nothing - with Dix the LLLR is the breeziest.
>
> I just went out front and tried the Grey van (parked) and with the levers
> LLRR the fan blows tons of air through the dash end vents.
>
> Just reporting, Jake
>
