Heater Box Lever Kit?

[lsilverman11]

Hello,

Ordering new heater boxes for my 1970 Transporter. Two questions:

1. Do I need the lever kit that they sell separately? Or is that only required for the beetle?

2. I see them at JBugs and Wolfsburg for the same price. Any opinions on who to buy them from?

Thanks!
Larry

[richparker]

Have you ordered them yet? If not, I’d recommend buying a nice set of used original heat exchangers. The new ones are not the same quality as the original ones and they will not produce the same amount of heat. It’s been awhile since I’ve compared the weight, but the original ones are at lease 2 pounds heavier then the after market ones.

As long as they are fairly clean and in good working order, it doesn’t take much to clean them up. You can spray out the inside with a hose (or pressure washer), clean up the outside with a wire wheel and paint them. It may take a little longer the clicking the mouse on your computer, but the final result will be better.

Good luck!

Here’s a set currently in the classifieds:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2031987

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2357840
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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[kreemoweet]

You do not need the lever kits. Those things are heavy, and shipping charges will be substantial.
Who I would buy from would depend on how much the vendor charges for that shipping.

It's true that original boxes were vastly superior to present-day aftermarket. As demonstrated
by the ads posted above, you'd be very lucky to find an old used box that is not a "project",
requiring missing parts to be sourced and welding skills to repair. Also, very seldom are the
photos in ads good enough to tell if there are pinholes from rust in the metal, indicating that
the metal shell is so rusted as to be ready split apart, which is the condition of most heater
boxes of that age.
_________________
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'68 bug: seized by the authorities
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[busdaddy]

It depends on how cold it is where you drive, the aftermarket ones make lousy heat, but enough to defog and take the chill off on a not so nasty spring or fall day, as mentioned how much effort do you want to invest?

If you do buy new ones make sure they have 2 levers, bug ones only have a lever on the inner side and make it tough to connect the control cables, universal fit version shown below. That lever on the left sticking up is what you need, the downward facing levers aren't much use in a bay bus.

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Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

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