nothing that I know of ..
but I can tell you this ..
when moving the temp lever towards warmer you are pulling a solid wire
out of the flexible tube ( bowden tube ? ) ...
but when reducing heat you are pushing that wire back in..

the geometry of the heater temp lever and that control cable is very poor ..
at full max temp there's over an inch of cable hanging in space...
no one ever lubes these control cables as much as they need..
so ..
one day ....you move the temp lever left..instead of sliding back in
..the wire kinks...
and from then on you have very compromised heater valve control...

until ...you go in there, carefully straighten the kink ..
lube the hell out of the cable ..I hold the end up and dribble good lube
( Triflow is one of many ) into the cable housing while I move the cable
in and out with a needle nose pliers.

76 % of all water cooled vanagons need this service and adjustment. (
maybe more. Certainly every one I've ever seen , or owned, or worked on )
It's classicly on the weak side in a 'VW way' ...and usually never
serviced until it's really broken.
and 95 % of the time it's just inspection.....straighten ...lube
..adjust. I've rarely had to replace a cable.

oh ! I have seen a newish off-shore made cheap heater valve be very
stiff to move.
( original and good ones never do that in my experience ) ..
and it seemed like it must be cable for sure..
but it was a too-cheaply made newish heater valve.  Don't buy a 9 dollar
one is my recommendation ..
get a 30 dollar VW dealer or Van Cafe heater valve ..only !

Scott
was turbovans

On 12/2/2013 11:05 AM, greentabe-vanagon@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I am looking for the correct terminology here:
>
> You know the heater and vent cables?  They are flexible sheathed rods that can both push and pull.  By contrast a sheathed cable like a bike brake cable can only pull - if you push on it it will buckle.
>
> What is the name of either a sheathed rod that can push and pull, or a sheathed cable with a rod on the end, again for both pushing and pulling?
>
> Thanks!
>
> t johnson/90MV
>
>