Gday,
Figured out why the carpets were stripped from my new to me 144, heater valve appears to be leaking.
What's the best replacement route? Just the valve or a whole kit?
If it's just the valve, looks easy enough to do without major removals. Any tips?
Cheers!
That type of vacuum operated heater valve is a 1973 year model 1-year-only special, part number 1210200-0.
140s and 164s had them; the 74+ heater control valve is different and the same as a 240 valve.
See Drawing 15387 in the 164 parts manual (Group 9, page 17, PDF page 729 of the part book that should be in the Oz Volvo Tech Archives - 164 is the same as 140) for the 1973 layout.
Drawing 15388 (a few pages later) shows the 74+ model layout with the cable operated heater tap.
A new 1210200 could be very hard to find. GCP.se doesn't list even the part number. What's worse is they're a known failure item.
But okay, let's say you're really lucky and one or more of the 52+ year old hoses have perished. If you're unlucky, the heater core has failed, and that's a problem too because 1973 heater cores are a 1-year-only item too.
You may have to convert it to a 240 type of heater control valve, which is cable operated. That will mean a change of your heater control panel to a 240 type as the existing one has a vacuum operated temp control, and that won't work with a 240 heater tap since they're cable operated.
The 240 control panels will fit - the mounting hole spacing is the same - but you'll need to swap over the fan switch and other hardware from one panel to the other (with the exception of the temp control of course).
Note also that some of the later versions of the 240 heater tap don't have any capillary tube for temperature regulation like the old ones did - you'll see on the existing 1210200 vacuum-operated tap how there's a capillary tube and coil which fits into the heater box. IIRC @jamesinc found a supplier for good 240 heater taps.
If you're retrofitting a 240 type cable operated tap, you'll also need to plug the vacuum line which originally went to the old heater tap.
Alternatively, you might choose to have the old 1210200 vacuum tap reconditioned, but I don't know anyone in OZ who does this.
I've never had to change a heater tap over, and I hope I never have to. But it looks to me like a dash-out job, and so it's worth examining the state of the heater fan brushes (which are still available) and replacing them while you're in there.
Major Ledfoot right, of course its not the easy repair! I might pull mine out first and see if there is a way of sealing it back up again, otherwise it almost sounds easier to loop it off and throw a 12v heater in for the demister for how much im going to use it.
It seems like the core itself is fine for what i can see anyway. I do have a whole 240 somewhere that i can use for the heater conversion worst case.
Thanks mate!
Valve is out, got an old school radiator guy near home. I'll try and drop it down in a couple of days to see if it's something he can deal with or knows of something else to replace it with!
Ooops! Looks like you cut the capillary tube! That controls the temperature regulation by adjusting the amount of coolant bypass through the core. When the heater tap doesn't leak, it's a bloody good system, especially considering it was designed in the early 1970s, when design engineers used slide rules and paper and not computers.
Major Ledfoot yeah I did, I actually nearly broke it with the twisting and turning to get it out of the car, looks like someone has had a go at it before unfortunately. not sure if there is an easy replacement if I can fix the valve
Jaz If you don't have much luck, there's a guy in the US who does heater valve repairs.
https://www.heatercontrolvalve.com/
Since you have your valve out - it's not made by Everhot I hope?
Major Ledfoot Its a Ranco valve, 17 73 4p are the only numbers on it!
