Heater Control Valve Replacement

Maintenance advice to keep your Spider in shape.
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OttawaTom
Posts: 43
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:49 am
Your car is a: 1976 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Ottawa, ON

Heater Control Valve Replacement

Postby OttawaTom » Mon Apr 17, 2017 9:43 pm

Took the car out for the first long-ish drive of the spring last weekend and started smelling my old nemesis: coolant leaking :( When I had an X1/9, I used to drive around with 12L of pre-mix and enough spare hose to repair any two of the 4 main hoses, so I'm very familiar with the smell...

My heater control valve started leaking, so I'm going to need to replace it. I've read a number of posts about the replacement, but I could not find one that addresses how to hook up the control lever.

I have a "new style" control valve from the PO (ordered from Bayless in 1995). I'll need to order gaskets. The AR website talks about carefully bending the pipe to fit the new valve. Has anybody tried this without breaking it? Otherwise, I'll probably go the route of cutting it and connecting the two ends with a short length of hose.

I would really appreciate if somebody who has done this replacement could post a picture of how they hooked up the wire from the console control lever to the new valve. It seems like the new valve needs to be pushed open (and pretty hard, too) rather than pulled and I'm concerned the wire from the control lever will buckle.

Here's a picture of the valve I've got.

Image

The replacement one looks just like the one on every parts suppliers website. For example:

https://autoricambi.us/collections/cooling/products/heater-control-valve

Also any advice on how to remove the valve from the heater core without ripping the stud off the heater core would be helpful.

Many thanks,
Tom

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So Cal Mark
Posts: 13839
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 3:45 pm
Your car is a: Fiat
Location: upland, ca.

Re: Heater Control Valve Replacement

Postby So Cal Mark » Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:59 pm

you can't bend that pipe without kinking it. I had new pipes made with the correct angle. I carry them as does AR
Mark Allison
allisonsautomotive.com Fiat and Alfa Romeo parts and service. Performance parts our specialty!
Headers, ignitions, wheels, cams, flywheels
starsmark@hotmail.com 909-981-3566

Kongphooey
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:14 am
Your car is a: 1980 Spider 2000

Re: Heater Control Valve Replacement

Postby Kongphooey » Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:41 am

We just went through this very issue of bending the pipe. I don't have any pics but we were successful at bending it without breaking it or linking it. Takes a lot of patience and a bit of heat from a torch and a vice. If you try this method be very careful not to bend the flange.

Recommendation...buy the one from Mark and keep your stress to a minimum. This was not easy to get the bends right so it fit properly.

Good luck.

klweimer
Posts: 550
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:45 am
Your car is a: 1982 Spider 2000
Location: Arvada, Colorado

Re: Heater Control Valve Replacement

Postby klweimer » Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:03 am

I gave up on trying to bend the pipe on mine and got a nice new one from Mark. I don't recall having any issues with fitting the cable to the new valve. The new style valves turn on and off in the same direction as the original. In your original post it sounded like you were concerned the direction had changed?
Kirk

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OttawaTom
Posts: 43
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:49 am
Your car is a: 1976 Fiat 124 Spider
Location: Ottawa, ON

Re: Heater Control Valve Replacement

Postby OttawaTom » Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:08 am

Thanks for the replies! I guess I'll go with a new pipe.

Kirk, do you think you could take a snap of your installation?

Thanks,
Tom


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