How to use heater controls

[mmarks]

Hi all (again!)

I am trying to understand how to use the heater controls to get either hot or cold air. I don't have an owners manual with the car so does anyone have a scan of the heater instructions or could describe how to use it for me?

Many thanks in advance,

Mike

[TR Tony]

Hi Mike & welcome to the forum. Congrats on your first TR7!

Heater controls - you have 4 levers, 2 each side of the radio console. On the left is the heater contol & the fresh air vent control. On the right is the fan control & the distribution (interior/screen) control.

You should have a schematic diagram next to the levers, but basically the heater lever regulates the temperature of the airflow into the car. The fresh air lever gives unheated exterior air (regardless of the heater lever position) into the car. The distribution lever allows you to direct air between the interior & the screen, & the fan, well thats self explanatory!

You don't say if you are having any particular problems but if you are unable to get hot air it may be that the heater matrix has been bypassed. They are well known for leaking & a quick fix is to bypass the matrix by joining hoses together - hope that is not the case for you as you have take the dash out to change the heater matrix[:(]

Tony

<font size="1">1981 2L FHC Cavalry Blue - very original & not rusty!
1980 3.5L V8 DHC Regency Red - on the road again.</font id="size1">

[mmarks]

thanks for the response. Actually, I am struggling to understand how to get cold air into the car - it always seems too hot!

Mike

[TR Tony]

Put the heater lever to the top (cold) & the fresh air lever to the bottom (full open). Put the fan lever down to about half way (i.e. just before the first fan setting). Put the distribution lever down towards the bottom to direct air towards the footwells (fine tune to your personal preference!).

Adjust the face level vents as required. You should get cool (outside) air now. If you still get hot air with the heater lever on cold then something may not be connected properly in the heater unit (the levers operate a combination of flaps).

Tony

<font size="1">1981 2L FHC Cavalry Blue - very original & not rusty!
1980 3.5L V8 DHC Regency Red - on the road again.</font id="size1">

[Steve-LPS-Thomas]

BL Specially designed features of the heater controls..

Pull lever down, knob breaks off...

Push lever up, knob breaks off...

Special compartment under armrest to house all the bits that have broken off...

Steve

<ul><b><li>Ex BL Development TR8 (Rally Replica).</li>
<li>The First and Only UK TR7 "Victory Edition" (Now Sold) </li>
<li>Ex-BL/Safety Devices Development 8v Rally Car.</li>
<li>"The Shape of things to Come" Trailer.</b></li></ul>

<b><font color="blue">http://www.croyde-bay.com/triumph.htm</font id="blue"></b>

<b><font color="blue">croydebay@aol.com</b></font id="blue">

[Hasbeen]

Mike, I have never been able to get rid of that hot air,
particularly after the car had been stopped for a short while. It
always produced air, a little warmer, than the outside air.

One car I bought from Melbourne, [southern Oz, & cold] had an old
fashioned water on/off cock, controlled by a pull push cable, in the
hose from the back of the head, to the heater. This would stop the
water flow from the back of the head to the pump, [via the heater] &
may cause cooling problems, or local hot spots. Perhaps, not a good
idea with a head with a reputation for blowing head gaskets.

Up here in Queensland, almost always warm to hot, I have bypassed
the heater, running the water from the back of the head, to the
water pump, using the hose that took the water from the heater.

Hasbeen

[jclay (RIP 2018)]

Do you have the air valence installed? If not, you are just getting hot air from the engine compartment.

[Beans]

Hasbeen hinted to it ...
On a TR7 there is constant flow of (fairly hot) coolant through the heater matrix. If not in use this radiator is covered by a flap, preventing airflow through it. But there will always be heat radiation into the cabin

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
1981 TR7 DHC (not very well known yet, but back on the road)
Also a 1980 TR7 DHC, 1980 TR7 DHC FI, 1981 TR7 FHC
http://tr7beans.blogspot.com/</i></font id="blue"></center>

[macutmore]

There will always be a certain small amount of hot air drawn into the car from the engine because the original rubber insulating blocks are not normally intact on the edges of the removable plenum panel duct. There should be two fairly large thick triangular pyramid shaped flexible foam rubber blocks stuck with contact adhesive on the edge corners of the plenum panel itself, insulating (to some extent) the air from the engine and supposedly stopping it from actually entering the fresh air duct.

Since the rubber blocks deteriorated quickly on new TR7’s and came unstuck easily when the plenum panel was removed, there is now virtually no TR7 that still has these original foam pads intact on the corners of its removable plenum panel.

I do have these fitted to my car totally intact. They are no longer available or under manufacture. I believe I had the very last of this Unipart item which were found somewhere in an old parts bin!

[Odd]

Pictures, pictures! We all miss those - and want to know how they looked...

[mmarks]

I think the controls have been connected wrongly!
The left and side controls (RHD car) seem to be back to front. The furthest away control says 'vent' and min and max. The next control has hot and cold settings - this one seems to open the flap for the centre air vents!

Is it easy enough to swap them over again?

[Howard722]

<font face="Comic Sans MS">To resolve heat draw into my car I cut foam wedges to replace the missing `plenum corner fitments`(yes-need pics. of the real thing!) and replaced all the foam panels (that had turned to dust) that line the `flaps` and seal against the edges ( I say seal in the loosest sense). Also the flap valve closing cam up on the heater box(RHS) needs to be set just right so that it closes the flaps firmly-I found this tricky to get just right! </font id="Comic Sans MS">

Enjoy& regards

[macutmore]

Original insulator block rubber

(Lower foam square rectangle was added for protection only)

Note double block thick foam and cuttings in original part

Overlaps and is stuck firmly with contact adhesive to plenum panel inside edge

[Odd]

Thank you.

(No wonder we never see them. Should be easy to replicate.)

[FI Spyder]

My originals were still there but deteriorated (tary) but I could get the idea. I made a set out of Selectric foam base from sound reduction kit. The foam is 20 years old so didn't hold it's shape as well as it might but it'll do for now. You can see the T slit for the bonnet release cable to go through (kinda).



TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra