[DeTomaso] If it's broke, don't fix it...

[Christopher Kimball]

Today I decided to do a few projects on the Pantera, one of which was to find out why the heater only blew warm air instead of hot.  Since I want to drive it as much as possible, I've been driving it during the cold but dry winter days here in Washington.  I flipped "on" the heater shut-off valves I installed but the heat to the cabin was only minimal.

I took off the kick panel and found the cable sheath had broken on the top lever allowing the lever to move from side to side without actually doing anything, so there's not much I could do with that.  I'm not sure what it even does, since it seems to do the same thing as the middle lever ("floor/defrost" versus "car/defrost").

Anyway, I did find that the bottom lever which controls the heating level was stuck, and that's why the lever didn't move back and forth very far and why the heat was anemic.  I followed the cable to the little plunger valve going into what I believe is the heater core.  It wasn't moving, so in a moment of what turned out to be stupidity, I pulled on it as I moved the lever and suddenly it unfroze and began moving as it should.  Except for one small thing; coolant began dripping from where the plunger enters the core.  D'oh!  I've read in the forum and in the newsletters about what a pain this problem can be.

I put a towel under there to catch the drips and turned off my heater shut-off valves in the hopes that will prevent the leak since I believe that should stop the flow of coolant to that part of the car.  I'm not too worried about the heater, since I usually drive in warmer weather, but I have two questions:

1) Will my shut off valves prevent the cabin leak?

2) Will the faulty heater affect my air conditioning, once I get it recharged (I have a new compressor but haven't charged the system yet)?

Thanks,


Chris
#3846