Installing a new heater valve

[HandyDan]

This was today's objective:



to replace this:



I ordered the new valve to replace the hard-to-move old valve.  It was somewhat corroded and made sliding the cable difficult.  When I ordered it I thought it was a direct replacement of the old.  It looked the same and worked the same and had the same cable fastening device.  But, NOOOOOOOO, it was different!  The two tubes on the old one were both the same size.  The new one has one tube bigger than the other.   That didn't seem like too big a deal until I tried to put the rubber hose on it.  I pushed and pulled and said some bad words and finally got it on.  I managed to put everything in it's place and then tried the cable.  It only went half way and stuck.  I went back to the valve and discovered the tang on the cable end was hitting on the air conditioner thing that was right next to it.  I had to undo all the clamps and push the rubber hoses further up on the heater tubes and try to turn it a little.  In the end it all seemed to work.  After I got everything all buttoned up and cleaned up I tried the heater.  Nothing happened.  No fan, no air conditioning, no nothing.  So I took the heater control panel out again to see what was causing the trouble.  Could not find anything amiss.  So I put it all back.  I checked for inline fuses but didn't find any.  Then it occurred to me that maybe this was controlled by the chassis fuse block. Sure enough, a 25amp fuse had blown.  After spending 20 minutes searching for a good one, I plug one in and everything was good again.  If I had to do it all over again, I don't think I would have gone to all the trouble.  It was a lot of work for very little improvement.  I have antifreeze all over the driveway and some cuts and scratches on my hands and the cable is still not smooth.  However, if it ever gets cold again and I go anywhere in the cold, I'll be ready. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep...don't you hate it when a simple job becomes a way more than complicated one?  Glad you got it all fixed!

Kev