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Heater

Posted: 10 Mar 2016 19:00
by sonscar
The lever that operates the fan has developed some floppiness.I have taken off the fascia and found that there is only one rivet at the top holding the bracket on and two unoccupied holes.If I reattach this with new rivets or screws from the outside will I run the risk of damaging anything behind it?Thanks in advance,Steve.

Re: Heater

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 09:26
by busheytrader
TR7 Heater 1.JPG
TR7 Heater 1.JPG (48.66 KiB) Viewed 3035 times
TR7 Heater 2.JPG
TR7 Heater 2.JPG (48.38 KiB) Viewed 3035 times
TR7 Heater 3.JPG
TR7 Heater 3.JPG (43.89 KiB) Viewed 3035 times
Hi,

These are the pictures I took of my old heater from both sides. The drain tube is at the top so the heater is upside down in both pics.

All of the levers on my heater box were sloppy but that was due to them being loose on their pivot points. Once I'd tightened these up I had full throw on all the levers. I can't remember if I had to take the whole heater box out to do this. The dashboard has to be removed to remove it.

IIRC the fan is buried deep inside and the cables are all outside. The delicate resistors for the motor speeds are up at the top with the resistor coils in the air flow. The motor is on the outside by the heater pipes that will eventually rust out and leak. The plastic heater box splits and cracks easily so you need to be careful drilling out old rivets.

Is the lever slopping about on its pivot, or is the whole bracket holding the assembly moving around?

Adam

Re: Heater

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 11:11
by sonscar
Thanks for the photo,s,very helpful.It looks like it has been visited before as the whole bracket is loose due to only having one rivet fitted in it at the top instead of the three that hold it's partner.It looks like I could just possibly reach through the side and fit a suitably small bolt or two to refit it.Times like this wish I had paid more attention to the heater when I had it removed during previous welding sessions.Ah well it's a time consuming hobby.Thanks Steve.

Re: Heater

Posted: 11 Mar 2016 19:18
by sonscar
Reaching through the sides turned out to be a dead end so I drilled out the rivets holding the metal front plate and removed the two screws from the bottom(not easily) and removed the plate and levers.I took the opportunity to clean the fan control contacts and fit a new roller in the springy clip so the lever now clicked into the indents,rerivetted the bracket and refitted the front plate.Initial impressions are a much improved action and the fan switch seems more positive.Will it last?who knows but it was fun tinkering.Inspection after dismantling revealed the original rivets had corroded into powder and had broken off.Thanks for reading,Steve...

Re: Heater

Posted: 12 Mar 2016 00:02
by busheytrader
Good to hear it's sorted.

All the sponge, not rivets in my heater disintegrated to dust and was blown out of the vents over the years. The rivets held fast. Whilst drilling one of them out, the rivet got so hot, it melted it's way out of the plastic casing courtesy of a not so sharp drill bit. My current heater is built from the best parts of three units.......