{Chrysler 300} Vintage Air Heater Control Valve

Well,

I go the electric heater control valve installed. So far so good. Time will tell. It is very nice to get it out from under the dash and from above the carpet.

I got a plastic project box off Amazon. I had to use the little cutter wheel to get some raised boss’s off the bottom inside of the box for depth. I then placed their controller on the bottom and put two machine screws to hold it in place. Could have just used Velcro

I then took the lid and cut a slit with the Dremel tool and then drilled two VERY small holes next to those. The slide potentiometer uses Metric #2 screws. The MUST me just the correct length to go through the cover and into the switch top plate but not down into it. That is very important. You may have to cut the screws.

Then I made a sheet mental holder for the back side. The switch was designed to go into a circuit board, so it needs some support. I rubber coated the contact side of the switch as well as put a little pad under it. I then bolted it to the cover.

Then I took my drill and drilled out the spot welds on a heater control valve housing to hold the cable. I screwed that down to the lid.

Then cut a slit for the wires to exit. When all done you have a positive wire with a 1-amp fuse in the lead, a ground, and the bundle of wires with the connector that goes out to the valve. I made a plate to cover the old hole in the dash with a slit for the wires to come into the engine bay. {I found an open switched spade in the top of the fuse panel which is easy to get to with the speaker out. I could run the power wire directly to it and did not even have to crimp on any fittings. I used the ground spot on the wiper motor housing, again, just pull the screw and stick the ring connector at the end of the ground onto it. Sometimes you just get lucky!

The cable I was using is an NOS from a later MOPAR and it was a little longer than the ’64 cable. That worked fine as it was long enough to mount the new unit in the kick panel. If anyone gets serious about doing this conversion hunt me down and I will see if I can find that part number.

I had to go get some Â¾ inch to 5/8-inch inline adaptors as the Vintage Air unit uses 5/8-inch hose connections. I know that buried in the Gates Catalog there are some 5/8 to Â¾ inch hoses, I may hunt some down at some point to get rid of the extra hose clams and connectors. By the way, if you look at the Renco valves the flow around the plunger is quite restrictive of flow when open. The Vintage air unit when open is the full 5/8 inch. So that even though there is a Â¾ to 5/8 restriction I think this unit may actually flow more hot water.

You can see the photos…

James