Itinerant Air-Cooled

Not sure where this topic goes, but in a past effort at removing the dash, I accidentally removed the rubber caps on the heater levels. They were not supposed to be removed I believe (it was difficult), but the problem is that I cannot get them back on. They fall off in spirited cornering. Has anyone dealt with this? If I need to replace the whole levers, how do I get them off? And what would be a good source for used levers? My cables aren't perfectly oiled, so it takes some force to turn the heater on, which is painful without the rubber caps.

Thanks for your help!

Sure is good or I should say reasuring, to hear that someone else did the same thing I did. Covelo I ended up getting good complete used ones from regalsr (Steve) and have not installed them yet but know the drill with the clips ect. If my cables were in good condition I would seriously consider a strong glue application on the levers but alas I must go thru the paces of dash removal anyway. Good luck with yours.

I had that "special" pair of pliers for years, by my side to move the levers

Elwood wrote:the drill with the clips etc.

Can you expand? I somehow don't seem to be able to find this procedure in the Bentley. (Why doesn't the Bentley have an index????)

I think we sadly need Colins book for all these details be they drawings or pictures. However my very old and well used Haynes has excellant pictures of my model year of under dash connections. The cables come up thru floor at what place ? not sure on your bus, but connect to levers with a clip. When you disconnect, you can then pull levers out of the front of dash without removing red/blue knobs.

Not that it will help you at this point, but I will be taking pictures of this in my task in next spring forward months.

From the picts I've seen of you, looks like you could get on your back and take a look-see under there and figure it out. Kinda hard for this robust lady, but it's a can~do attitude I will have to take

Thanks! Now I have to find some levers and I'll make the switch. This spring my goal is to make my bus look more like Ratwell's.

Instead of screwing with those pins on 68-72 levers....... throw them and the spring clips away. Get 73 only spring clips. They allow you to R&R the levers like 74-79 levers. The clips have catches on them and they keep the levers in. Unfortunately, you will need to raid two 73's to get 4 of them. 73 went to 2 red and 1 blue, instead of 2 blues. Here is a picture of the spring clips. The clip on the left is 68-72, the one on the right is 73 only: http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/245068.jpg

Hiya All,

Geez, where else could you get information like that?

Karl you are a gem!

And for my two cents worth (not that this has anything to do with securing the levers, but.........) the heads on an early bay lever can be renewed by dipping them into the same goop that you use to coat tool handles. Works really well, I've done it myself.