I just helped someone else pull his heater last Saturday.  It was in an '82
diesel.  The foam weatherstripping on the air control flaps was nearly gone
and could not have been providing anything close to a seal.  He may also
have had some air in the heater core from a recent heater (water) valve
replacement.  There appeared to be nothing else amiss in the system.  After
replacing all the foam stuff, bleeding the heater core, and carefully
adjusting the control cables, it works great.

Mike Snow
1982 Westfalia 1.6TD
Camp Pendleton, California

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of Sharon & Miguel Calvin
> Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 5:03 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Cold defrost/warm heat 1.9wbx
>
>
> On a long highway run last night the heating system behaved strangely.  It
> was very cold outside, -20c or about -4f, and very windy.  The van never
> got very warm even with the heat and defrost levers in the fully open
> positions and the fan at max.  There was heat but not enough.  when we
> stopped for donuts I noticed that as soon as we got off the
> highway the air
> coming from the defrost vents started to cool down while the air from the
> footwell vents remained warm.  After being stopped for a few minutes with
> the engine idleing the defrost air was cold and the footwell air remained
> warmbut not hot.  The temp guage stayed in its usual position over the LED
> throughout the drive and the ten minutes spent stopped.  Anyone know what
> is going on here?
> TIA
>
> Miguel Calvin               ==+=========
> mcalvin@ican.net           /[ ][  ][  ]}|
> Guelph, Ontario, Canada   |  _       _  |
> 83.5 Westy, "Frieden"     =-'O`-----'O`-= ~~
> 1.9l H2O and manual trans