The cable for the front  heater control valve pulls nicely to increase heat,
but instead of sliding back in the outer cable one day, it buckles, and from
then on you don't have full heater valve control quite.
   I manage to straighten the bent part of the cable and get lube into the
cable enough to make them work pretty nicely again.
  What I wanted to mention is that I recently *really* lubed al the control
cables, all four of them while swapping out a whole heater unit.  Like I was
able to hold the cables vertically and dribble lube all the way through
them.  The cables are now so smooth the levers move like they're not
connected to anything even.  Made me realize all my other vanagons weren't
working nearly as nicely as they could. 
  Do whatever you can to get lube in those cables. Even spraying with wd-40
just at the ends helps, and run the control back and forth while you spray.
It's really nice when they work properly, plus it helps the associated parts
work right too.
s. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Ken Lewis
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 3:34 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Almost no front heat but my rear heat is OK... why?

The valve is probably not opening all the way. I have had the metal portion
of the pull cable buckle at the control.
Ken Lewis
http://neksiwel.20m.com/