Cleaning out heater tube with a shop vac

[Clara]

Used a shop vac to clear a heat tube today. The heat flow out the front was minimal to nil, and the inside of the windshields was fogging up.
The hose fit nicely to the 67 tube.

I wish I took a video of it sucking down the mouse nests, the vac hose looked like a snake gulping down several angry mice.
The can was empty when I started

Next moved the hose over to the other connection on the vac so it blew the air forward through the heater tube. I put a T-shirt on the dash vents so the garbage would blow onto the floor. I connected another tube to suck up the little bits of detritus in the cab, then turned the shop vac back on. Now it had good flow! Not too much stuff came out of the heat vents, just some small bits of fluff and plants.

Last reconnected the heater pipe, and indeed the engine blew air nicely at the windows!
It barely blew any garbage into the bus, the shop vac had got 99.99% of it.
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The Obsolete Air-Cooled Documentation Project http://oacdp.org/

[crukab]

Ahhh The Jersey Looker, should be a good amount of trailbash dirt under that Bad Bus.
_________________
Tom

My Pops:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=604100&highlight=
I know you will always be with me, rest in peace with no more pain. 8/13/14.....

In the yard right now:
'51 Dodge 5 window truck
'65 Bug
'66 Singlecab
'82 Rabbit Truck Diesel from CALI
'86 Doublecab W/T
'91 Vanagon carat/wolfsbrg.Tiico
'88 Dodge Ram pickup
'11 Jetta Wagon

[j.pickens]

Jersey Looker getting some love.
Maybe you could mount up the Cragars?
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[campingbox]

[Clara]

[motofly196]

That's a great idea Clara! I tried vacuuming the heater tubes out with my Single, but it wouldn't work. I ended up running water through mine to get all the gunk out. I jacked up the front and ran a garden hose from under the dash (engine out). I also had to bleach run bleach in there to get the "dead" smell out of the tubes. Followed by an air hose with the gun handle zip-tied to clear all the water out. Smells good when the heater is on now. I got a few carcasses out of it, and ALL of the coconut husk seat material!!

[brettsvw]

Good info /instructions.

Here on the east coast because of rust no need to clean the tube because the last three buses I owned the tube did not exist or crumbled in my hands.
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My 59 kombi build.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=635003&highlight=

My buggy build.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=558601&highlight=

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[coolerthanelvis]

[Stocknazi]

If you can't get all the crap out of the tube with a shop vac, try using a leaf blower connected to the tube. Really makes a mess up front, but really gets the air moving.
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[Clara]

[mattcuddy]

[73sports]

Funny, I was just thinking that of all the things that could be done to this bus after arriving in the bus Mecca of the PNW; improved heat flow would have been lower on the list.
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[BonTonRoulet]

A shop vac might work, but a Stihl gas powered leaf blower will definitely work here. You can even have the shop vac hose hooked up to the rear of the heater tubes and blow through the rear cargo "log" and the front windshield vents/cab vents with the leaf blower at the same time.

Now, a trick I recently thought of and implemented, if you aren't going to hook the heater mufflers/flexible hose/heat exchanger of your engine system in your bus for a while and want to deter rodents or anything else that might venture into places from those connections at the rear of the chassis, a tennis ball is your answer.

1) Take a tennis ball. Preferably one declared "dead" by your neighbor the tennis player. Apparently, tennis balls have a very short life span for their intent before being thrown to a dog, or in this case, a neighbor with a split window VW bus.

2) Drill a hole in the tennis ball. Now it can be collapsed in your hand and you can drill another hole about an inch or so away from the first hole by putting the drill through the first hole and drilling the other hole from the inside of the ball out.

3) Using a pair of forceps/hemostats/favorite roach clip slip the forceps through the holes in the ball, grab a nice sized zip tie with them then pull the zip tie back through the ball and out.

4) Connect the ends of the zip tie together but don't pull it tight, rather use it as a pull loop.

5) Compress the tennis ball with your hand zip tie loop out and jam it into the heater tube in the rear of the chassis of your bus.

6) Marvel at your accomplishment knowing you have defeated the potential varmints and anything else that would make yet another home in your heater tubes.
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Never argue with an Idiot. They'll only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

[BarryL]

^^^ So the zip tie loop is so you can remove it later?

[BonTonRoulet]

Absolutely! The zip tie makes for an easy pull handle to get the ball out of the tube, and the tennis ball without a hole to effectively deflate it really was too tight to fit.
_________________
Never argue with an Idiot. They'll only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

[Clara]

I went with the shop vac rather than blow so to not throw detritus into the bus. Generally if I just hook up the heat a lot of stuff blows into the cab.

Before heat the windshields did not defog. This a visibility issue in damp climates. After I hooked up the heat, the glass cleared of moisture This made it much easier to see, nicer to drive.

Mice climb through front heater vents. They take seat stuff and put it into the main heater tube and nest there as well as under the front seat. So. Turn the heat to defrost on the project bus?
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[Bruce Amacker]

I don't know what busses have this, but my '65 did. VW put a "cleanout" at the lower front bend in the heater tube for access to stick a blowgun and blow the crap from the tube. I hooked a shop vac to the rear of the tube, bent the access door open, and stuck a blow gun in there. This area rots out badly so if yours is a rust bucket it is likely gone.

Good Luck!
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'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
Build threads:
'66- http://www.leakoil.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2888&sid=54d8dedfb3822f99c7f2ea430cb4e856
'65- http://leakoil.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4263

[RWK]

Yes on the clean-out! I did a 71 bus that had very little air flow, opened the clean out and stuck a heavy wire back towards the front beam, used vacuum and the wire with a hook, clog was at the thinned down section that goes over the beam, most of the crap was insulation that shed from from flex heater tube connector, filled a gallon zip lock bag.
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