PV: Heat control valve thermostat connection

[adarvasi]

Hello friends,

I am in the process of starting the assembly of my PV544 and need to know how to install the heater control valve's copper coil. Have not been able to find any information
Thank you

[arcturus]

Hi, there should be a flexible duct from the heater manifold in the driver footwell which leads into the space just at the front of the trany tunnel,just below the dash. It should have a slot in it into which you insert the copper coil. If you can't find it I will post photo tomorrow.

[adarvasi]

Thank you Arcturus, I should get the new flexible ducts next Thursday from VP Autoparts (great people) and check it, if in the meantime you could post a picture, it will help me a lot

[blueosprey90]

I don't know if what I did was anywhere near "correct".

When I disassembled my ducting and heat control valve, the temp control tube was routed in the heater duct back towards the heater core, and was just laying in the duct, not in the heater core. It was rather a mess.



When I reinstalled, I simply coiled the tube up and left it in the metal piece that covers the valve, i.e., the brown and silver part in this photo.



I did some testing first to verify that it functioned, but my thought was that so long as it was in the warm air flow it would work.

Please note that the valve always seemed to be partly open, which I think means that the heat could never be fully turned off by the temperature sensing tube. Rather, it seems to modulate the flow, reducing the flow somewhat when temps increased and increasing flow when temps decreased based on the mechanical setting. Of course, I've never tried it in actuality as my heater fan is on the fritz.

[arcturus]

Hope that this helps. At the moment I have my heater completely out of the loop due to the high temp's here. connect the flex tobe with the hole facing towards your feet and the slotted end to the binnacle, The 'stat tubing fits into the slot. A bit messy

[blueosprey90]

I think my ducting (1957 PV 444) was different. Not flexible pipe; no slice and no hole in the pipe to warm the feet.

My control valve tube originally ran back through the duct and laid in that plenum above the clutch pedal.



When I reinstalled everything, instead of using that piece of flexible hose that can be seen in the photo to connect the duct to the plenum above the gas pedal, I used a piece of flexible pipe connector similar to this. I had to shorten it, but it made a much cleaner connection.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Fernco-2-in...ngs/1000075335

[Ron Kwas]

bo90;

Yes, the thermal feedback has only partial (est about 25%) control of the Heater Control Valve, because that's all that's necessary for varying the Coolant flow slightly in order to keep cabin temp constant...and I agree, its precise location is not super critical...but must be somewhere in the heater airstream...HCV should be able to be completely closed with the mechanical cable input...check and lube mechanism and Bowden Cable.

Cheers

[adarvasi]

Thank you very much Arcturus, I am not sure my hoses are similar, but now I understand how it works with bo90 and Ron explanations.

[adarvasi]

Thank you BlueOsprey for the information and pictures

[adarvasi]

Thank you Ron, the whole thing is less "engineered" than I expected. Is strange though that no maintenance/repair manual, and I have a few, mentions how to assemble the system.