Heat in cabin

[Greaser2]

Even with heat control to off I’m getting some hot air on the driver side. Passenger side is fine. My thought is the valve on the heat exchanger is not closing well. I have tried to fittle with it by hand and it seems to close as far as it wants too. Looks like have to remove the entire heat exchanger to get to the valve and try to get it to close 100%. Is this true? Anything else I should try first?

[Bobnotch]

[W1K1]

I have one flapper that gets half cocked in the heat exchanger on the drivers side,and stays partly open, I have to open and close it a couple times to get it to close flat on the opening
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[Jason37]

I had to add a helper spring to one of mine to assist with closing.

[notchboy]

[cpaz5150]

If you have already gone through all the interior cabin flaps and cables (as suggested already) and chase the issue back to the heat exchanger's internal flap, then it's likely a broken spring on the back of the flap. I've changed out a handful of them over the years and most recently last month on my current square rebuild. There is a small torsion spring that keeps the flap oriented when closing and that spring often rusts and fails eventually. I've made springs in the past but this time found that a spring from a toggle bolt was just right.

Taking it apart and replacing the part is not overly difficult, but it is tedious and fiddly. If you aren't mechanically inclined, I would not recommend taking it apart. Coincidentally, even the Bentley manual has some brief discussion of taking the exchangers partially apart for repairs (like this one). Good luck.

[Greaser2]

I pulled the exchanger off this weekend, not difficult at all and the flap appears to work perfectly. Put it back on and loosened the cable a bit more. Will test drive it to see if it persists.