At 01:27 PM 12/2/2007, Vdub Guy wrote...
>heater. Got out the owners manual and found the section on Aux.
>heater. When I puch the knob in and turn it to the right I hear some
>clicking and the timer running. Knob does not light up as it should.
>Manual mentions two fuses, a 16 amp and an 8 amp located behind the
>glovebox- I removed the glovebox and cannot locate them. Can anyone
>familar with auxillary heaters shed some light on where these fuses
>are? One time I turned the heater on with the engine running, and the
>engine died immediately.

The below applies to my '81, your's may be different.

The fuses are to the right of the regular one, in a couple of 2
position fuseholders which "clip on" to the 12 position one. The
Bentley says one of them is in an inline fuseholder, but it isn't, so
don't trust either the owner's manual or the Bentley in that regard.
The light is hooked to the dash lights, so it being out doesn't tell
you anything about why the heater isn't working.

In order for the heater to work at all, in addition to pushing the knob
and turning (and that's only needed with the engine off), the heat
temperature lever (2nd from top) must be all the way to the right (hot
- haha). There's a switch on the lever which is required for the heater
to come on. When I got mine, it didn't make good contact, so sometimes
yes sometimes not.

There's also a safety circuit breaker - which can be reset with a small
red lever on a black box (maybe 3" x 2" x 1.5") mounted on the (it's
not really a firewall on a Vanagon, is it?) under the dash, near the
driver's knee. About where the fuse box is, but on the other side of
the steering column.

The first indication that it might be trying to work is a noticeable
fan noise - there's an air blower fan in the back, mounted up and right
of the transmission (remember, I've got an aircooled). There's also a
combustion air blower in the front left of the heater itself. Both come
on when the heater is on. You'll should also hear a clicking sound
about 3-4 times a second - that's the impulse fuel pump for the heater.

My combustion air blower was burnt out - mud wasps had at one time past
built a nest in there, which kept it from turning. Goodbye, motor
windings. I ended up rewinding it instead of paying the ~$200 they seem
to go for.