[DeTomaso] Heater control valve

[doug351c]

Mike,

I have an original valve in my car and it definitely doesn't look like the
one in Wilkinson's picture below. Mine can be disassembled easily.
It's o-ring is an available size and if it's regreased every 10 years or
so it works like a champ.  Although you can't adjust the cable so it
both fully closes and fully opens, so I adjust it so it fully closes for
more comfortable summer driving.

Doug Braun
blue 73L #5505

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 9:29 PM
To: JDeRyke at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Heater control valve



In a message dated 3/22/11 14 58 22, JDeRyke at aol.com writes:


> Wrong. There are two, as Tom mentions: the late one most often seen uses
> a
> small sheet metal lever that runs in a cam slot cut in the top of the
> brass
> valve body. Our '72-1/2 L model has this valve. The earlier one uses a
> bent
> rod that cams internally in a different style brass valve body. There's a
> photo of an early valve in the May '07 POCA News, on the same subject.
> It's
> true there's only one listed in the Factory Parts Lists, but that's not
> the
> only mistake in there..
>

I was always under the impression that the 'later' style valves you
mentioned were, actually, aftermarket replacements rather than original Ford
valves?   The Ford valves apparently had longevity issues and it seems
likely that
many of them were changed out with generic valves long before current
owners (including you and I) ever got our hands on our respective cars.

My car has Charlie Puckett's '74 heater box on it, with a totally frozen
valve of the kind you describe, and I always assumed it had been changed
because I can find no reference anywhere to the type of valve you talk about
ever
having been fitted originally.

Here's what I consider to be the one-and-only Pantera valve:

http://www.panterapartsusa.com/cgi-bin/detail.cgi?prod_id=12007a

What would be interesting would be for somebody with a known original later
car (Chuck Engles perhaps) to eyeball it and tell us what kind of valve
lurks there?

Mike