Heater boxes

[fisherman]

I think I have all the civilian truck heater parts, the heater core box, the fan and the plenum which mounts inside the cab and allows for heat or defrost. For those of you who have this style what controls have you used for this? The heater box itself has a cable style lever for I assume letting air into the cab. The heater plenumn itself runs off of vacume with the little vacume plenums. What controls should I look for? Did these civilian plenums ever come with cable controls instead of vacume controls? I need to start thinking about this stuff as it will be time to install soon. Thanks Everyone.

[Barrman]

Todd,
I have the same problem, all the parts and no cable attachment points. I zip tied my flow flapper to full heat, air flow flapper to full air and the defrost flapper to 2/3 defrost, 1/3 floor heat. I have a valve on the heater hose that I control the heat with.

I know it isn't a perfect solution, but it works for me.

I have a 1963 Wagoneer I got for 230 parts and all cable heater controls. Gues what? Vacuum controls. I don't know about J-trucks, but I really think only the military heaters had cables at all 3 flappers.

[gimpyrobb]

In hacking up a riding lawn mower to make my welder/generator mobile, I noticed it had like 4 of those cables. Want me to ship them out Tim? You might be able to find some (peddle) bike shifters that might work too.

[george walker]

I think all the gladiator series used at least some vac controls, however in the miltary units you can see a simple cable clamp was spot welded where the vac dashpot would have been ,perhaps if you removed the dashpot you could fashion a cable clamp there. there was a couple cables on e-bay one was the heat the other was defrost i think also ck w/ memphis or vpw they might have some extra cables from heater kits they parted out. otherwise you should be able to find a universal cable at an auto parts store and cut to length. you could also use the orignal civ vac system just need to find a way to mount the civ heater control then jus add vac hoses.

[Barrman]

I will be coming to you one of these days Chris. Just nicely set them in the back of a certian truck without scratching the paint please.

[brute4c]

I used a civ setup for a while...might sound funny but what I used to control everything was:

The fan switch from the FSJ...came with the harness.
The temp slide from the FSJ, mounted on a bolt to the bottom center of the dash panel.
For the vacuum routing to the heat door and the defrost door, I needed 3 ports total...vacuum from engine and a line to each diaphragm at the the door...I found a small piece that fish tanks use to route pressure to 3 locations to blow bubbles in different places. There is a hose connection on the end of a small hallway/manifold and 3 needle and seats plumbed into the side of the hallway/manifold. One can turn a knob on the needle to open it to the hallway/manifold, thus pressure/vacuum flows through that one and a hose connects to each needle location.
The smallest one I could find had 3 needles...I ran the one closest to me for heat and the farthest way for defrost. Cost was under a buck and it worked great here in norther Wisconsin. See if I can find one online...any place that sells aquarium shops would have it.

Looked a bit...several varieties online under "aquarium valve" but none exactly like it...I'll see if I still have it.


A couple members have used the stock setup with all cables by welding little tabs on for the end of the cble to mount, after the diaphragm is pulled, and a little piece for the cable stay to mount to.

When I needed one of those little pieces for the cable stay, I went to the junkyard and got one of a 50's era car....

The cables are availbe in a universal, quite long, length, from and decent auto parts.

[Barrman]

I think Virginia has been lurking.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jeep-...em160153694589

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Milit...em160153695269

[brute4c]

You realize thats Vintage Power Wagons selling those...

[Barrman]

I think the best way to put that Jon is "kind of..."

[fasteddie]

Mine came with some kind of under the dash heater unit , have no idea what it was from . It had no cables on it , just loose flapper levers flopping around . I got my cables from Mill Supply , they are on the web or you can request a catalog which shows better pictures. Look under step van parts for heaters, there are differant styles and lenghts . If I recall correctly, I had to trim one to fit the lenght needed; easy.