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Thu May 24, 2012 6:59 am

My car has a full header system, so no heat, or more importantly, defrost/ defog for the windshield. I started looking at gas heaters, and picked up two Stewart Warner heaters for a good deal. I haver the blue manual, from 1970 that covers the operation, troubleshooting, and model differences. After some cleaning and coaxing, got them both fired up. One is 6 volt, the other 12. My plan is to modify the 12 volt one with 2 new outlets to tee into my stock defrost vent tubes, and keep the under dash louvered outlet for passenger heat. My question- can anyone give me fairly specific measurements of the hole that needs to be cut? There is kind of a range of locations where it could work, but I'd like to put it where it's supposed to go. Also, the unit appears to be either on, or off, with a pull cable to operate the thermostat. I don't yet have the cable/ switch so I'll have to improvise. The thermostat shuts the fuel valve and kills power to the coil, the fuel pump and blower fan are on the same on- off switch. How could I go about adding a variable speed switch for the fan, keeping the fuel pump at full voltage?

Thu May 24, 2012 5:03 pm

This switch is advertised as 6 volt but like most switches I don't think they are volt specific so it should work.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1281223

As far as installation this might help

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/heater_ac.php

I'm getting ready to cut some holes in my '62 and was going to post up the same basic question as yours except for a b2 eber. unfortunately I'm having a hard time finding a detailed description of where to cut for my application.

Thu May 24, 2012 7:34 pm

Thanks, waiting to hear back about that switch. Spent some time mocking up the location. There's a foot separate from the rest of the heater base facing the front of the car with one hole. As far as I can tell it goes right behind the passenger side upper gas tank bolt. That lets the heat exchanger just clear the hood spring, and be scary close to the gas tank, and the glove box. These things sure are crazy! I let it run for 30 minutes today though, no problems at all.

Fri May 25, 2012 3:08 pm

I bought one like yours for $10 out the classifieds here and took it apart & refurbished it ,got everything running but couldn't get the fuel pump to work.I finally gave up & bought a b2 eber for $50 and had more luck .This link shows the cut holes.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/southwind_bug/page2.jpg