Thread: county heater stuck on

Originally Posted by OLR-067

hi,
I have a 85 county with a/c fitted. a/c doesn't work but the thing is the heater is stuck on.Now i know this is a common thing,the solinoid for air flap not turning off...but where is it, what does it look like and will i have to tear the dash open to get to it.

cheers
paul

solinoid? i thought it all ran on vacuum lines in 85?

Cable tie the water hose into the heater in the shut position. I think from memory it is open unless you switch off the heater. You will see a little lever with a rod attached. Thats it

G'day All, Paul they are all Vacuum controlled as stated by echidna, it is a nightmare behind the dash with different coloured tubes and where they go, all I did with mine years ago was to put a ball valve in the line and shut it off, did something similar with the AC took the control wire off the compressor and told swmbo that it's stuffed so don't worry about it, i hate AC so now it dont work LOL cheers Dennis

The vacuum controlled water valve rusts out inside and doesn't seal.

If you remove it and have a look or blow through it, you'll find out if it seals. A manual valve will work wonders but it isn't convenient.

Ron

The county also has a hot/ cold air flap, controlled by a CABLE, which runs around the front and top of the engine and down under the heater box etc. The cable is about 20ft long!()

This cable can sometimes have an outer sheath failure, which causes the inner not to pull the flap to cold. As you pull the temp control from cold to hot, it pushes the cable out, and pulls it back in to go to cold flap position.
It is hard to see, so get a torch and probably a mirror, and be patient.


JC

I will have a look in the morning for the cable...the lever will not go all the way to the cold on the left. With that I am thinking it is stuck cable somewhere.Does the cable run along the firewall behind the air cleaner.anyone have a pic of what it might look like. Just seems a whole heap of crap there compared to the bloodbox.

What perfect timing for your question, Paul - I have just had to remove and dismantle my County heater box to fix a coolant leak.

Hopefully yours works the same as mine (my levers are vertical on the right hand side of my instrument binnacle).

There are two flaps controlled by cables. The one at the top near the bulkhead closes off a rectangular hole that goes into the cab behind the dash, so if this closes properly there should in theory be no airflow through.

If you have hot air coming through, possible causes are
- the cable not pulling it properly closed,
- the foam stuck to the flap to give a good seal has perished (like mine),
- something is lodged between flap and body of the heater box.

The other cable to the box operates an internal flap that closes off the air intake (presumably for recirculation, although with the design of the thing I cannot believe for a minute that it would provide any air to the cab at all if shut).

It's reasonably straightforward to remove in the usual Landrover = Meccano way - three small nuts/bolts to remove at the bottom and two to loosen at the top, plus a couple of electrical connectors. Note that removal may reveal problems with other seals that you preferred not to know about (such as to the air intake on the nearside wing).

Dismantling requires you to drill out the rivets that hold the top on, but for your problem that should not be necessary.

Cable-tying shut is a good suggestion as long as the foam is OK. It is easy to tell which way is shut because if you release the cable gravity will pull the flap open (hinged at the bottom).

As for what may go behind the dash... that I do not know. I don't think my '85 County V8 has any vacuum controls and there is no water valve there any more because of the LPG installation.

Chris

Sounds like you might have vents, Chris? The vacuum controls were part of the in-dash A/C setup, with controls to the left of the dash.