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Expert
Posts: 1730
   
Location: Michigan | While I have the coolant drained and I am fixing leaks I thought I would further investigate the problem I have with heating. Ya see... (said with a Ricky Ricardo voice) it done work Lucy...
I get sort of temperate air... but certainly not anything remotely hot. The heater core is fine. It was rebuilt. Hoses are all new and no kinks.
I suspect my control valve. I don't think it opens well. When I had it out of the car it looked like it work as it should, however it has this temperature sensing unit built in, that for all I know isn't functioning properly. I am not sure what function it has.
Open Questions:
1) can you bypass this temperature sensing unit somehow?
2) is the direction of flow critical?
3) How can I test it's functions?
It's one of these units. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-1956-NOS-MoPar-HEATER-CONTROL-VALVE-Pl...
Apparently it's made of Gold as well... although I swear it is brass.
Oh Sage's of past heater pains and many lessons learned... please share the wisdom. |
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Veteran
Posts: 184
Location: Canada | are the hoses routed correctly?
there are 4 openings (inlet/outlets), and 2 of them do a U in mine, and the other 2 go to the water pump.
send me a pic of your hoses and the way they are routed, and I can compare them to mine and let you know if I see anything different.
It kinda looks like this if I recall correctly .. the alphabets denote the orientation of 4 outlets on the firewall:
a
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b
c --------------------------- d
* a and either b or c go to the water pump - one hose goes to the top and one to the side of the water pump
* there is a U between either b or c AND d
(b and c are right next to each other, I can't remember which one goes to the water pump and which one does a U and goes to "d"), but the specific routing to the water pump maybe important. The car is @ the storage. Next time I am there I will look it up for you.
Edited by snik 2015-01-05 10:55 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1730
Location: Michigan | I just checked those and I have it set up the same way as in the manual. The top port on the pump goes to the valve top port. The bottom port of the valve goes to the bottom port on the heater core. The top port of the heater core goes back to the lower power on the water pump. |
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Expert
Posts: 1730
Location: Michigan | Hmm...finding some handy things on the internet.
http://www.chrysler300club.com/how/hvalve/hv.html
From another site:
I went to that Packard site HERE and disassembled 7 and have created 5 working units.
My local NAPA was able to get me each seal for less than $12.
If the unit has ever been rebuilt previously you are screwed...metal tabs can only be bent so many times.
If the thermostat portion of the unit is defective you cannot shut it off. Discard and substitute a spring where the disc goes. This will give you ON-OFF function only with no good regulation (those things never worked that good anyhow).
It beats the gate valve I had installed under the hood. It is encouraging that if the tube is damaged that you can alter it so it still functions as an effective switch... I would be quite happy with that, if it came to it.
Edited by Beltran 2015-01-06 12:38 AM
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Veteran
Posts: 184
Location: Canada | nice find .. thanks for sharing |
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Expert
Posts: 1348
Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | For a couple winters, I had no heat when I went on long drives I also checked everything and replaced the thermostat but no difference. Letting it run for a while, I felt the thermostat open and had real hot water flowing through the hoses. The temp showed normal. Someone suggested the lower rad. hose was collapsing. My replacement hose has the wire built in and now I have heat.
Just a thought,
Karl. |
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Expert
Posts: 1348
Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | Just curious, I had to do 4 hrs of snow removal last night at work. The temp was around +8 F with some wind. What do you consider cold up your way? I did do some ice fishing up in N. Mn. and we had a wind chill of -40. I started getting the feeling they didn't think it was cold until it dropped below zero. I wonder if my Suburban under the best operating conditions would keep me warm up there? |
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Expert
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Location: Michigan | Heh. well Karl your correct in that it is a 'relative' statement but I am not driving the car atm. I would never do this as Penance is usually on jack stands from December to March. But I mean when it's like 50 - 60 degrees F. I can't get heat to take the chill out of the car as we are driving around.
So the update... upon observation of the sites above and my manual, I cannot see any hose routing issue or a pump issue. It's all text book. So, it must be time to rebuild the valve. I will be getting it out of the car this week and sending off to Joe H. for rebuild / replacement. Best to get this out of the way while I have the cooling system torn apart anyway... |
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Expert
Posts: 1493
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA | If you have the core out, just route it to the heater hoses without any valve. If it gets really warm with the thermostat open, then that's not your issue. |
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Expert
Posts: 1730
Location: Michigan | problem solved
One of the unique features of my vehicle is the Marine Hemi install. This block has the water jacket holes in an offset position that makes it harder to use a standard mopar waterpump. But conveniently enough, HotHeads has a timing chain cover that routes the holes into alignment with a small block chevy waterpump. Common part, easy to find, blah blah. I have this pump on my engine and did some poking around the web to learn that the two heater hose ports are both INLET ports not one in and one out like on the mopar pump. On a chevy the inlet to the heater comes off the intake manifold.
So.. I have to move my heater hose to get heat. |
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The Heater... in the 55 Chrysler is not well.
