Re: Heater Tap.

["Ross Watson" <Ross.Watson@domain.elided>]

John,

the center part of the heater tap is fitted with a rubber seal. It's quite a
tight fit. As you have no doubt discovered, the actuating lever is connected
to this using a tiddly little self tapper, and, when new, turned the center
brass 'tap' by the fact that the hole in the lever was 'D' shaped and
matched a machined end on the tap.

It sounds like someone has used a tad too much force, and has forced the
lever to move when the tap was seized, thereby neatly rounding off the D
from the brass tap body. If that's happened to you, about the only way (I
can think of) to remove the tap is to remove the lever and replace the self
tapper. Then try to pull out the self tapper and with it, the brass body.

Obviously, the tricky bit is that you have to stop (and admit that this
might not work) just before you rip the thread out of the brass. Of course,
if your brass machined D (small at the best of times) is no more, you'll
have to consider just how you're going to turn the brass tap, if ever you
get it out and then refit it. Having considered that, you might wish to
apply less or more brute force.

You could try heat, but given the proximity of the carpets, wiring, and foam
in the heater itself, you would have to be *extremely* careful. Not a road I
would care to venture down.

The tap body, as you suspect, is soldered to the heater matrix. The heater
unit itself can be disassembled (easy) and the heater matrix removed. The
heater matrix then gets repaired and goes back in (difficult). I doubt you
could do either without removing the heater from the car (difficult if you
don't want to remove the dash).

I was fortunate when I did this in that I had the heater unit on the bench
at the time.

For what it's worth, if it were me, I would try and get a secondhand brass
tap body. At least then you can see what you're up against. I would then,
probably, make the self tapper's hole bigger and put something more
substantial in there (you'll probably need to do that anyway if you want to
hold that lever tight enough to turn the tap). Then, bolt on a larger lever
and try turning it back and forth. Once you can turn it, try turning it and
pulling at the same time. Once the rubber seal is clear, things should get
easier.

Getting the SH replacement first would make things easier on the mind. Of
course, that's if it were mine. If it were someone else's car, I doubt I
would be so brash.

Ross

-----Original Message-----
From: John Fergus <jbaf@domain.elided>
To: Stag Digest <stag@domain.elided>
Date: 14 June 1999 00:41
Subject: Heater Tap.


>The heater tap on the side of the heater unit seems to be frozen shut. The
>lever just spins on its mount and upon removing the lever there is nothing
>to grab onto to turn it. I would really like to get some warmth into the
car
>as it is winter here at the moment. There doesn't appear to be an easy way
>to remove the tap and replace it. It appears to be soldered directly to the
>heater core but I'm not sure. Any suggestions?
>
>72 Stag
>Melbourne, Australia.
>
>
>