Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 13:07:24 -0400
Reply-To: Bob O'Shaughnessy <vanagon@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Bob O'Shaughnessy <vanagon@COLUMBUS.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: a lot of hot air...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Kristin Dewey (Goldenroad@aol.com) said on the date of 7/18/98 3:24 AM
>Now for my latest question:
>Is there anything I can do about hot air blowing on my feet??? I don't know
>why it does this, and I'm not thrilled about driving to Vegas in the heat
>wave
>with hot air blowin on my legs, if you know what I mean...
>Doesn't seem to matter how I have the vents or the heater/fan/AC controls...
>Though sometimes it seems to be worse than other times...
Well, if you're *sure* you've got your heat shut off, it might be
that the valve that cuts off the coolant to you heater core has gone bad,
or the cable has snapped.
Does the heat slider slide *way* too easily? If so, the cable is
broken.
The sure way to check this is to have a friend sit in the driver's
seat while you drop the spare and peer up into the underside of the van
with a flashlight. If you follow the two smaller coolant hoses up
through an oval shaped rubber plug you'll see a white plastic thingy just
before the plug. That's the valve. Have your friend slide the heater
know back and forth and see if the valve is opening and closing.
If it is, then have your friend push the thing as far closed as
he/she can get it and then give it a little push your self. If that
doesn't work, replace it. This is a *real* cheap part, as it is used on
*all* the early water cooled cars.
If it doesn't move, you need to replace the cable. Not fun, it
involves pulling the dash, which takes a day or so. While pulling the
dash, I'd replace the heater core and the fan, so you don't have to do it
again for a few years. There are plenty of long, detailed posts in the
archives (including my own) about this fun procedure.
If none of the above helps. Check to see if you can direct the hot
air out the defroster vents. If you can, you have a heater core/valve
problem. If you can't there's a procedure detailed in the Bentley manual
for installing insulation around the driver's footwell, to cure the "hot
footwell" problem. What happens here is that the footwell is heated by
the radiator. That wouldn't be hot air though, just heat.
Good luck,
_________________________________________________________
Bob O'Shaughnessy, Columbus, OH
vanagon@columbus.rr.com
85GL (awaiting Multivan interior)
74 Bus (Dad's)
72 Wife, 94 Rabbit, 95 Cat, 96 cat, 98 Kid
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