TheSamba.com :: View topic - What do the knobs under the left side of my dash do?

Fri May 28, 2004 10:33 am

My 71 Ghia has two knobs on the left side under the dash. I can pull them forward, or push them back- I know they are fresh air, but do they also controll the heater vents, or are those controlled be the levers by the E-brake?

Fri May 28, 2004 10:43 am

I don't have my owners manual in frotn of me, but if I remember correctly, the handbrake knobs control the heat and the others control the vents.

Fri May 28, 2004 10:51 am

Okay, dash knobs control the fresh air intakes to eachof the defroster vents. Pass side ebrake knob does the heat on and off, driver side ebrake knob does rear footwell heating on/off.

Sun May 30, 2004 7:13 pm

yea, cobey is right - on the heat control levers on either side of the E-brake, up is on - down is off - for the 2 fresh air knobs far left side of dash its push toward front of the car for on flow to either side of defroster vents and pull toward back of car for off - I wish my '71 ghia had an electric fan for the defroster vents like my '71 super beetle had.

Sun May 30, 2004 8:38 pm

In theory, it shouldn't be too hard to install some. The trick will come in when you have to decide how you want them actualted.

Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:40 pm

Oh boy, I was going to post a thread asking what the two levers do that are next to the e-brake. But I didnt want to do a re-post of something that was most likely discussed before. So after spending about 2 hours of paid work time :wink: and 11 pages of searching I found my answer in a post dated back in 2004.

Here was the picture I was going to use

ok to get things straight...in order to have some sort or heat come into the car both levers have to be pulled up right.?

Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:58 pm

Just the passenger side need to be up to ger heat into the car. This opens the flap on the heater box.

Heat will flow into the car either through the foot vents if they are open or the defroster vents if they are closed. If you want heat in the rear footwells, pull the driver's side lever up.

On another topic. In your photo it looks like the ebrake cables have poked through your boot and you have put wire nuts on the top. I like to put a rubber cap over the tops before installing the boot just to help keep the cables from popping through. You can get the caps at most FLAPS.

Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:54 pm

All of this is clearly explained in the owner's manuals. If you don't have one, they are in the posted digitally in the Samba archives at the top of your screen where it says, "Technical".

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/8_70ghia.php

Merry Christmas!