Dino Saga 060409___Heater water valve | FerrariChat

Dino Saga 060409___Heater water valve

Discussion in 'Corbani's Corner' started by John Corbani, Apr 9, 2006.

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  1. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    #1 John Corbani, Apr 9, 2006
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Dino Saga 060409___Heater water valve

    We sometimes get cold weather in Santa Barbara (way down to the 40s), and some rain. Fogs the inside of the Dino’s windows. Need the defroster to work during rainy season. My water control valve was hard to work when I got the car. Eventually got too tight for cable so I pulled cable and turned with a pair of pliers. Only had to do it twice a year. Open in December-Close in April. No problem. Until something broke in valve. Arm turned 360 deg. and nothing happened. Valve stuck closed. Finally had to get serious.

    Pulled vacuum formed shell, brake reservoirs, inlet duct and could see what I had. Lots of rust, cracked upper hose, at least two bolts holding heat exchanger to fiberglass tub. Jacked front of car up a few inches and found that I could feel two bolts and their nuts by reaching over the tire. Could reach bolts by turning wheels full right too. Great.

    Removed bolts and heat exchanger was free. Removed air and water control cables and carefully worked assembly forward. The two rear air ducts slipped off easily. Was able to rotate assembly upward enough to get a plastic pan under heat exchanger. Had let some water out of radiator already. Removed upper hose and clamped it high. Was able to lift assembly higher to remove lower hose and let water run into pan. Clamped lower hose high. Took heat exchanger into shop.

    Valve frozen solid, full of crystallized something. Punched through crystallized mess until there was a passageway. Put everything back so car was driveable. Called GT Car Parts and ordered new valve. 3 days later got a surprise. New valve was quite different in operator arm details. Water in and out, direction of travel was OK. Called the guys and found that old valve has been obsolete for years. Valve I got was all there was.

    OK. New valve had less travel, no clamp for actuating rod, arm about 120 degrees off. But I had old arm, a moto tool, drill motor, drills and taps. Removed lock washer from new arm hold-down screw, LocTited nut, got a nice flat surface. Old arm was easily modified. Only had to try twice to get angle right. One extra hole. Oh well.

    While I was waiting for valve I checked hoses. Tried to run a wire down the upper hose and ran into blockage. Pulled hose and cut off about 6”. Sectioned it and you can see the mess. Inner rubber had swollen and then disintegrated in spots. Might have been specially molded with 2 bores but I doubt it. Replaced with new ½” hose. Hard to work hose under wires on way to left heat exchanger lower tube. Be patient, it can be done. Need about 6 ft of hose. Other hoses looked OK so left them.

    Pics show the details. Will paint the whole mess some day. In and out is now a piece of cake. Should have done it years ago. Meanwhile, defroster works just fine.

    John
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  2. synchro

    synchro F1 Veteran

    Feb 14, 2005
    9,294
    CHNDLR
    Full Name:
    Scott
    GT Car parts is blowing smoke at you - this is a FIAT part and is readily available. They probably show it as NLA because they don't have it or they don't want to expend the time/money for their inventory.

    These are identical to your original and don't need modifying. On a bad day they are $50
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2453035968

    But I've seen them as low as $25 on Ebay
     
  3. dm_n_stuff

    dm_n_stuff Four Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    John.

    Nice job, but, Synchro's right.

    I also got a replacement valve, identical to the original, from Either Ferrari UK or from Superformance.

    Also under $50.

    But again, nice job fixin' 'er the hard way.

    DM
     
  4. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    After taking the old valve apart, the new one may be better. Certainly simpler and stronger. As I said, throw is less but only 1/4" less at the dash. You never notice it. Red is hot and Black is cold. Good. Gonna take years to find out but I have a hunch that millions of Fiats had problems and they redesigned the valve.

    We now know two ways to do the job. I believe that GT gave good advice. I am more interested in keeping the car running well than keeping it 100% original and using old stock. Price was under $50.

    Couldn't resist opening the old one up to see what happened. Diaphram had cracked and coolant had gotten between rotary cam and housing. All was glued together in a crystalized mess. Drive shaft had been swaged into cam and swaging had failed when I twisted too hard.

    John
     
  5. lm2504me

    lm2504me Formula 3
    Silver Subscribed

    Aug 26, 2004
    1,086
    Nipomo, CA
    Full Name:
    Richard
    The part synchro has a link to will not work with the Ferrari Dino 246. At least for the one's I have seen and presently own. It will work with Fiat Dino's. Dino 246's have a tube on one end for the hose from the tee fitting.

    I purchased one on ebay several weeks ago for 35.00 only because the owner was not sure what vehicle it was for. I matched the part numbers from the photo. Mcann used to have one for ~300.00.

    Rich
     

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