Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2023 12:18:34 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Cured my hot cabin heater leak
In-Reply-To: <A43DCB80-F5C0-4C61-BBF0-37CCF129020D@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Eric,
No wiggling or fumbling in that space, easy peasy as all was done from the
driver's seat. Here's tha Amazon link to the tool, I don't know how helpful
it will be to you but if the link doesn't work just search Amazon (or
anywhere) for motorcycle cable lube tool:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=motorcycle+cable+lube+tool&crid=27CBW6HSIDTVI&sprefix=motocycle+cabl%2Caps%2C123&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_14
I would be happy to slip it in the mail to you as I don't have any
intention of needing it for a while. I use this on every cable in the car,
it may not accept the diameter of the emergency brake but it might, I just
don't remember. It is a split piece of rubber inside an metal shell with
two thumbscrews to clamp it tightly around both the cable sheath and the
wire. The idea is that you get it tight enough that a can of chain lube,
its plastic tube stuck tightly into a port in the device, gets shot down
the inside the cable sheath as the rubber closes off the other exits for
the lubricant. there are stepped diameters in the rubber to allow youto
clamp it to different diameters of cable, depending on how far you insert
the cable into the steps before tightening the thumbscrews.
Jim
On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at 10:16 AM Eric Caron <ericcaron96@comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> Considering where you live that is a must fix situation!
>
> I need to borrow that lubrication tool! All working here, but some
> prevention is always good.
>
> That must have been some tight and wiggly fumbling in that space.
>
> Best,
>
> Eric Caron
>
>
>
> > On Sep 2, 2023, at 8:51 PM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > For years I've had an expensive gowesty heater valve in my 1983 turbo
> > diesel Vanagon westy. This summer, with actual temps breaking 100
> commonly,
> > the heater started blowing hot air and adding 10+ degrees to my cabin
> > temperature. Today I took a look at that and made these improvements that
> > fixed the problem:
> >
> > Pulled the instrument cluster and the control lever assembly from the
> dash.
> >
> > Found that the wire cable that controls the heater valve had kinked the
> > last time it was turned off of heat. This left the heater valve open even
> > when the heat lever was turned all the way down--the hot water valve was
> > not getting the message.
> >
> > I used a gadget that I have gotten so much use out of over the years on
> my
> > vanagon for any wire that runs through a cable sheath--a motorcycle cable
> > lubricator--to shoot chain lube from a spray can all the way down the
> cable
> > sheath.
> >
> > I rerouted the cable underneath the dash so it took the most gentle path
> > possible to the lever.
> >
> > I loosened the cable clamp on the lever assembly and moved the clamp
> point
> > so that it cut off earlier rather than later as the lever was moved to
> the
> > left hand "off" position. I gently reclamped the cable using the least
> > pressure possible so as not to bind the wire as it passed through the
> cable
> > sheath.
> >
> > I straightened the wire as well as I possibly could with a pair of
> longnose
> > pliers.
> >
> > I used said pliers to push and pull the wire through its entire range of
> > motion. excercising it in and out of the sheath until the cable lube was
> > definitely doing its job.
> >
> > I used said longnose to bend the cable anchor tab (the rectangular sheet
> > metal tab of the lever where the wire inserts into it) in a twisted
> fashion
> > so that the left hand edge was about 15 degrees higher than the right
> hand
> > edge. This angle helped the wire, with its double-90-degree crook in it,
> > fit more securely and got rid of a lot of the vertical slop that allowed
> > the kink in the wire in the first place.
> >
> > Success! Didn't even have to get under the van.
> >
> > Jim
>
>
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