August 2, 2017

New Old Stock heater valve

Ever wonder why the heater control in almost every SAAB 99 is broken? First, the control in the dash is entirely plastic including a tiny post that is expected to push and pull on a Bowden cable to open and close the valve.

When the car was apart I worked on the controls and original valve. I cleaned up the Bowden cable and worked graphite into it. While it operates smoothly, the valve seal had degraded so it is impossible to turn off the heater completely. Wish I had found this part when I had everything torn apart, but maybe at the next coolant flush I’ll replace it.

April 30, 2013

dash pad, upper dash and heater controls installed

Installed the dash pad, heater controls, cluster pad, tidy box and glove box. The heater controls must be installed first, followed by the tidy box. You can then install the two A pillar covers and then the glove box and cluster pad. On the heater controls, the heater valve is typically broken. On my controls both the heater and vent control posts were broken. The cables were disconnected and are normally held in with friction clips. However, the clip mounts were broken. What I did was clean up the ends of the cables (both ends) using an emery cloth and then lubricate them. I then tapped two coarse thread screws with washers to hold the cables in place. This worked surprisingly very well. I was able to use one screw/washer with the heater control and the defrost control. I used two control boxes to make one good unit. They are glued shut, so with some care you can pry one open to get at the gears. Plastic on plastic is bound to bind. I used lithium grease for both the cables and control box gears.