Seeing as this is a minor sub project to my main RS2000 Turbo Project, and I'll end up asking for advice specific to this item, I've started a thread on it.
So, I had the heater removed form the car, and was bored so decided it was time to get it working. I knew already that the coolant lines had been disconnected and put onto the carby instead, leading me to suspect the heater core had a hole in it somewhere. I also knew the fan didn't work, and neither did the air deflectors.
Above: First step was to crack open the heater, by removing the two clips around the fan, and pulled the thing apart. First thing I noticed was the amount of dust in the thing, good thing the fan never worked or I would have been blasted in the face with dust and other assorted debris.
Above: The fan speed resistor just slides out once the assembly halves have been separated. Although in this case, the resistor separated as well, it's good for a laugh and that's about all. So I'll make my own at work, test out what speeds I might want and just go with it. I am not sure if you can buy replacement ones of these or not, if anyone knows where I can, it would be easier.
Above: The assembly split apart. On the left, the fan assembly, just pulls out. To the right, the first airflow director, then the heater core under that, and you can barely make out the second airflow director to the far right under that. The air deflectors had some sort of thermal insulation on them that was totally deteriorated, so I cleaned them of it.
Above: These are what the air deflector pivots look like. They seem to just be cheap plastic pieces, one has seized in place so I'll see if I can free it, if not, I'll have to manufacture something myself I guess.
Above: My test rig, costing me a whole $4.35 in parts. I thought I could put some pressure into the heater core to test for leaks, which I suspected would exist.
Above: So I did it...
Above: And sure enough, there was one, where the two fittings joined the core. So I'll take it to work and clean it up, and weld the seam. I'll also take the fan in and test it out, see what sort of resistance values I want for the different fan speeds, and go from there.
So I have a few jobs to do to get the heater serviceable, but that's all part of the fun. If anyone knows anything about either the resistor values, or if anyone sells replacements, that'd be handy. If not, I'll sort something out!
Tim