Hi Jim,

        Considering where you live that is a must fix situation! 

I need to borrow that lubrication tool!  All working here, but some prevention is always good. 

That must have been some tight and wiggly fumbling in that space. 

Best, 

Eric Caron 

> On Sep 2, 2023, at 8:51 PM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> For years I've had an expensive gowesty heater valve in my 1983 turbo
> diesel Vanagon westy. This summer, with actual temps breaking 100 commonly,
> the heater started blowing hot air and adding 10+ degrees to my cabin
> temperature. Today I took a look at that and made these improvements that
> fixed the problem:
> 
> Pulled the instrument cluster and the control lever assembly from the dash.
> 
> Found that the wire cable that controls the heater valve had kinked the
> last time it was turned off of heat. This left the heater valve open even
> when the heat lever was turned all the way down--the hot water valve was
> not getting the message.
> 
> I used a gadget that I have gotten so much use out of over the years on my
> vanagon for any wire that runs through a cable sheath--a motorcycle cable
> lubricator--to shoot chain lube from a spray can all the way down the cable
> sheath.
> 
> I rerouted the cable underneath the dash so it took the most gentle path
> possible to the lever.
> 
> I loosened the cable clamp on the lever assembly and moved the clamp point
> so that it cut off earlier rather than later as the lever was moved to the
> left hand "off" position. I gently reclamped the cable using the least
> pressure possible so as not to bind the wire as it passed through the cable
> sheath.
> 
> I straightened the wire as well as I possibly could with a pair of longnose
> pliers.
> 
> I used said pliers to push and pull the wire through its entire range of
> motion. excercising it in and out of the sheath until the cable lube was
> definitely doing its job.
> 
> I used said longnose to bend the cable anchor tab (the rectangular sheet
> metal tab of the lever where the wire inserts into it) in a twisted fashion
> so that the left hand edge was about 15 degrees higher than the right hand
> edge. This angle helped the wire, with its double-90-degree crook in it,
> fit more securely and got rid of a lot of the vertical slop that allowed
> the kink in the wire in the first place.
> 
> Success! Didn't even have to get under the van.
> 
> Jim