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

Christopher Kimball chrisvkimball at msn.com
Sat Nov 24 20:18:56 EST 2007


Thanks for the info--mine is the bent rod variety.

I will probably set aside a Saturday to take a look at taking the thing apart, although I really am a bit nervous since I don't know what I'm doing.  

Of course, if I totally screw up the heater, I guess that will give me the impetus to do what I've always wanted to do with the Pantera, and that is replace the entire heating and air conditioning system with a digital control that operates with a thermostat like my modern cars have.

That will mean taking the dash out, so maybe while it's out I should get it recovered in black leather to match the headliner and bulkhead.  And while that's going on, maybe I could take out the seats and get them recovered, too, and then, maybe I could...

By the way, the lever isn't  broken on my current heater, it's the casing around the cable that broke.  There's a little clamp that holds the cable in place, and it clamps to the casing.  Now that the casing is broken, there's nothing to hold the cable in place, so it just moves, casing and all, when I move the lever.  If I ever do remove the dash, I'm pretty sure I could just replace the cable.

Thanks again for your help!

Sincerely,

Chris
3846

PS:  To make myself feel better today, I installed the hood lock pins in the back to help stabilize the back deck.  While I had the taillights out, I cleaned them all up, especially the lenses, and glued a few small cracks I found in them, too.  So, two steps forward, one step back!

From: JDeRyke at aol.com
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:08:33 -0500
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] If it's broke, don't fix it...
To: chrisvkimball at msn.com; jab at cisco.com; detomaso at realbig.com

Chris, in my long reply, I forgot to mention that there are two different water heater valves possible, depending on the year. One has a simple bent rod that serves as the on/off lever while the second one has a flat sheet-metal lever that rides in a cam-slot cut into the brass heater valve top. Once disassembled, the guts are the same and the same o-ring is used. Chuck Engals wrote an article on repairing his valve some decades ago after much the same experience as you had. Or, there are replacement valves available at all the vendors, as well as good used dashboard heater levers. Just be careful to 'back up' the wrench used to remove the valve, or its possible to crack the copper tube its fastened to. Good luck- J DeRyke


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