Leaky Vanagon Heater Valve

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sped372
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Location: Waunakee, WI
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Leaky Vanagon Heater Valve

Post by sped372 » Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:25 am

I started noticing a few random coolant drips under the spare tire pan which led to the discovery of a leak at or around the heater valve (above the spare tire). I snugged the hose clamps on both sides of the valves but the leak persisted. I did some searching and found an interesting option on theSamba.

I went with the 660-1141 Balkamp valve and have been leak-free for a few days now, feeling pretty confident in the fix. I swapped the arm off my existing (leaking) valve over to the new part and finessed it's rotational position to cooperate with the throw from the dash lever. I have full-on, full-off, and good travel between. I didn't need to modify any coolant hoses and the new part feels much more robust than the original style. FWIW just thought it might be worth documenting here for someone's future knowledge.

Also, I found it much easier to get the actuation cable all set up first with the valve free, and then connect up the coolant hoses. It was too difficult to maneuver everything in those tight quarters otherwise.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Amskeptic
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Re: Leaky Vanagon Heater Valve

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:09 am

sped372 wrote:
Fri Jun 02, 2017 5:25 am
I started noticing a few random coolant drips under the spare tire pan which led to the discovery of a leak at or around the heater valve (above the spare tire). I snugged the hose clamps on both sides of the valves but the leak persisted. I did some searching and found an interesting option on theSamba.

I went with the 660-1141 Balkamp valve and have been leak-free for a few days now, feeling pretty confident in the fix. I swapped the arm off my existing (leaking) valve over to the new part and finessed it's rotational position to cooperate with the throw from the dash lever. I have full-on, full-off, and good travel between. I didn't need to modify any coolant hoses and the new part feels much more robust than the original style. FWIW just thought it might be worth documenting here for someone's future knowledge.

Also, I found it much easier to get the actuation cable all set up first with the valve free, and then connect up the coolant hoses. It was too difficult to maneuver everything in those tight quarters otherwise.


Thanks for the tip. Any photos/part numbers?
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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sped372
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Re: Leaky Vanagon Heater Valve

Post by sped372 » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:06 am

Part number is 660-1141, I ordered it through NAPA. Didn't take any photos but the thread on theSamba has some representative ones. There are some variations on the theme detailed there, I preferred to swap into the stock location so I could easily undo later if so desired.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

Jivermo
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Re: Leaky Vanagon Heater Valve

Post by Jivermo » Fri Jun 02, 2017 10:21 am

Speaking of Vanagon cooling stuff, I learned a bit about them when we had some cooling issues in Death Valley, of all places. It concerns the blue cap on the pressurized overflow coolant tank.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RT8Ew43mNg4

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