Heater and Roof Lining

A

alimorg

New Member
Hi All,
I picked up my new car on the weekend, and what a fantastic machine it is (1975 3500s Lunar Grey with black Box pleat leather mmmm - to all those who have read my posts in the past, yes I know I was looking for a tax exempt 2000tc, but I could not find one, and I was seduced by the V8 rumble!)
Anyway, as with all old cars it has a few problems any help with these will be greatly appreciated.

1. Heater
Driving home in the rain I discovered that I had no hot air on the screen, There is hot water going in and out of the matrix, but the levers that control the flaps in the heater are disconnected (one of the small alluminium control castings has broken) so, my question is, how easy is it to swap one of these, It all looks fairly straightforward apart from getting the levers out of the dashboard, anyone had a go at this?
Also should it be a three speed fan? mine only works on 2.

2. Roof
The car has a glass sunroof fitted that leaks horribly, which has caused the vinyl to lift and is causing corrosion on the trailing edge of the roof (again discovered on the way home!) I have sourced a scrap car with a decent roof and have read all the posts about removing the roof so am pretty confident I could do that, however, I will need the headlining from the other car as well and cannot find out how to remove it with out damaging it. any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help on this one
Cheers
Al
P.S. whilst digging around under the bonnet I noticed that the wiper motor was not connected to anything (physically not electronically), they still worked, but why would anyone leave it like that?
 
Al

I think I have read in my workshop manual somewhere about removing the headlining. I will look this evening, and if I find anything will scan in the relevant pages and send them to you.

Best regards

Russ
 
Hi All,
No need to worry about the heater removal have found full instructions on the Swedish Rover Club site.

They are available HERE

And to the lovely Swedes 'Tack själv för den hjälp'

Cheers
Al
 
Hi Alimorg,

I would recommend trying to remove the lining that will become scrap first as a sort of dummy run, the reason being that it is all to easy to damage bits.

You will need to remove the vinyl trim panels on the A,B and c post. you will then be able to see the screws. If you miss one the lining will just bend when you pull it. If you want you could cut the lining and reveal the frame on the scrap one. Once you have done it once you will be able to do it again much more easily.

If you are removing the roof panel then it can come out the hole where the roof used to be. Also recomend covering the seats as there are some sharp edges on the lining frame and you will really regret damaging the leather or cloth.

I am going to take the heater out of my car because I have the same problem, feet toastie windscreen I would be quicker blowing it clear. I know for a fact that the box is rotten and rusted badly.

Colin
 
Hi Arthy,
Thanks for the advice, I will probably take some photos of the roof removal and publish them on my website it would probably be of use to a lot of people
Cheers
Al
 
Hi Al,

Thought you may be interested in these pictures. I knew the box was a bit rust and I would be able to knock up some repair panels, Wrong.

You will see that the metal around the motor and matrix have disappeared hance the lack of blow.

Feel free to use any of my pictures on you website. I have quite a few of my car at various stages of restoration/repair.


colin



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Surprising how bad the heater units can get. I've got two rusty ones and throught I'd found a decent one in a 4 cyl car until I removed it and found a big hole in the bottom!
 
Alimorg, thanks for the link to my estate restoration on your website. Your compliments are meuch appreciated and you inspired me to update it with some of the latest progress!
http://www.geocities.com/bblongman/LatestProgress.htm

Bit of anorak question although I suppose it could be important. You may notice that my front pully is held together with three bolts. This is how it was when I pulled it apart to repaint the seperate parts but there are space for six bolts and the later land rover pully had six in it. Which is correct for a P6??
 
hi BB,
it is correct, you should have just the three nuts and bolts to hold your pulleys onto the main body.

ian
 
Hi Alimorg,

I can now answer your question about changing the little aluminuim control levers as I've just stripped my heater box! They are a press fit onto the splined ends of the flapper shafts and I managed to remove them by heating with a blow torch and then prising with a screwdriver. They come off very easily once hot and I am presuming that once driven back on again probably after heating that they will stay in place (May be a little loctite?)

I have acutally got 3 heater boxes so if you let me know which lever you wish to replace I can see if there is a spare one available and remove it.

Has anyone else ever completely stripped a heater box? I've removed about 100 or so rivets and screws and managed to get it down to a bareish shell with no levers or flaps etc. It's now boiling up in the caustic but I'd really like to dismantle the metal shell further as it's full of rust (no holes yet) and I want to try and restore it to as rust free condition as possible. It's a bit difficult to tell how the rest of it is held together so I would like to no how far others have got.

I also need to source the following bits:

i) new drain rubbers and hoses (these are more imprtant than I realised as they chanel the water from the top air intake out of the box)

ii) New foam for the air control flaps.

iii) I've got three matrices(??) none of which appear to leak but I know the two V8 ones didn't really produce much in the way of heat output. There is one from a 4cyl car which I've been told may be a better proposition but I'm presuming that they're all blocked up intrernally to some extent. Whats the best thing to clean them out?

Bennet
 
Wadhams supplied me with the heater drain hoses earlier this year.

I used self-adhesive 20mm wide door draught-proofing sponge tape in the heater. Make sure that you buy a good quality closed-cell foam type so that it won't soak up water and cause rust.

I had the heater matrix re-cored by a radiator specialist. I'm getting loads of heat now!
 
PS

My heater fan control lever has four "click" positions --- off (flap closed), ram effect (flap open), low fan speed, high fan speed.
 
Hi BB,
thanks for the offer of the levers, but I really think that my current heater box is 'spares only' I will be getting a working one very soon, thanks for all the help, I will probably strip down my old one and have a look inside I am finding the coplexity of the lever system fascinating!
Cheers
AL
 
Hi John,

Excellent idea on the draught proofing tape. Did you lay strips up to cover the whole of the flap or just lay it round the edge so it would seal?

How much did it cost to get the matrix recored?

Bennet
 
Thanks Ali,

I've already got a phosphoric acid tank set up for de-rusting. Heater box doesn't quite fit in whole though which is why I was hoping to dismantle it further. Try to find a bigger tank tommorow. I've seen the electrolytic process described and it looks interesting but a little bit more hassle due to the electrical supply.

Thanks John,

£50 is a good price considering thats what Wadhams charges for a cleaned one. I've acutally managed to clean out one of the matix with the phosphoric acid (on the advice of a rad specialist so I think thats probably what wadhams does anyway) and it's now running very freely and gets nice and hot with a hose from the hot tap running thro'

It was well blocked up and it took a about a couple of hours of flushing with acid and water to get it to run clear.

Funny the heater is now the thing i'm most looking forward to trying once the car is running again!

Bennet

PS: obviously I've got it out now but what is the 'approved' method of changing the matrix. I can't see how you could do it without removing the end cover. That entails removing a lot of screws and all the control levers etc. I have got one box where the have changed the matrix and have butchered the heater box to get it out. Surely that isn't correct either.

The haynes manual doesn't seem to cover the task either.
 
I have managed to lay my grubby little hands on a copy of the Rover repair manual used by the factory and there are four steps to removing the heater core! They say to remove the back cover (once the heater is out of course), release the fixings on the end cover, and manoeuvre the core clear. This is almost word for word what written in the manual, but I know from personal experience that it can be a lot harder than that! :(
Thought that you all might be interested to hear what the factory said about this whole operation :p
Cheers
GUY
 
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