Hello again, well it is getting cold and I have no heat in the interior. Now I know that the heater core is getting coolant flow because the water valve (water ****) has been removed and a standard pluming fixture installed with a generous amount of extra line attached. All the lines leaving and entering the unit heat up with the valve on. With the Valve off one side stays cool. I am wondering if there is something else I can do to return my heat inside the car? Mabey a vaccume line? The fan works fine and blows some air out its just cold.
Oh on another side note the AC compressor dosent even try to kick on (it never engauges at the pulley)
Any help would be greatly appreciated as the autozone heater that plugs into the lighter couldent heat up itself by the time the next shift comes on, its too dangerous to drive with a fogged / icy window

Thanks
-Dennis

 

Do you have the manual or the automatic climate control? When the auto climate control in one of my ZX's lost the ability to direct the air where I wanted it (temp and direction are all just a series of vacuum controlled doors), i used zip ties to permanently hold the doors in a position I liked.

 

If It Is Auto Control And Blows Air Still, It Could Be A Vacuum Conection On The Pass Side, Its Like A 4 Into One Conector. If Any Of Those Comes Off, There Will Be No Interior Heat. It May Take A Bit Of Tracing, And Its Easier If You Take Out Your Radio And Lower Panels As Well As Your Glove Box.

 

Thanks I will give it a look since I already have theese panels off (will think about the glove box if I have to) Nice nickname Shady280
And btw its a manual climate control from everything I can see
82zx coupe silver T-tops auto transmission

 

Manual AND no heat? I've got all the vacuum pulled from my control unit so basically alls I can control is on and off. All's I get is heat. And only to the feet

 

I Earned The Nickname At School, I Thought All 82 And 83's Had Auto Control. Interesting

 

Yeah, I should mention that mines an 81 though. So the 82+ might not be exactly the same functionally.

 

Well I did say its a manual from everything I can see, but I am new to her and dont excatly know what to look for LOL When I ge time I will try to fix it, just pulled a 16hr shift and am pretty tired LOL

 

I have an 83 with which i believe has the manual climate controls, check all your vaccum lines as everyone suggests and also check your vaccum lines inside the engine bay. Reason why is that I had a crack vaccum line going to the intake manifold and wasnt allowing air to from my blower to my upper ducts where the air comes out.

 

Problem found!
When the previous owner, in his infinate wisdom, removed the water **** valve and replaced it with a simple plumbing ball valve he did not take into account that the valve lever arm also actuates (via a connecting rod) the heater bypass flap inside the heater core assembly itself. I figured this out after checking all the vaccume lines and following them to their respective actuators and watching each of them work (I found 3, 2 on driver and one on pass side), giving up and taking time to read through the pages in the haynes manual one more time. After about 20 minutes of flipping back and fourth in the pages I read between the lines on page 94 paragraph 12 step 7 wich I quote
"Disconnect the tepmerature control cable and AIR MIX DOOR ROD from the water **** lever"
I went back to my car and found the rod and moved it.... and got heat!!! mind you its not the hottest heater I have ever had.

Now when I start and run this car it never really lifts the temp needle out of the first "cold" lines and into the medium range. (she is running cold like this even after a good run to work with both highway and city traffic) I think my thermostat may be stuck open but that wont be such a pain as this was... I hope LOL

Everything I have seen on this car points to a manual heater control
Thanks for the help everyone and happy new year!

 

The L's are notorious for running cold in cold weather and a open thermostat is only going to worsen the situation. It's good to hear you got your problem fixed. I've got a good thermostat and it still takes my car a while to warm up in this winter weather. I miss CA

 

Well the car never seems to make it out of the cold range and by that I mean past the first set of marks and into the middle zone... I am getting out my ohm meter and start troubleshooting I hope its the thermostat due to my low heater temp. Man it looks like its gonna be a pita to get that water valve back in and I hope it isnt gonna leak after I do put it back. I will keep updating, again thanks for the help
-Dennis

 

The thermostat on these cars is so easy to replace, you can get yourself a 190 degree t-stat to use in the winter months, and then change it back to stock when it gets warmer. That would help keep it runniing where it should be...

Rod.

 

I run no Thermo in the summer and it still over heats

 

Ouch! You've got issues!!!

Rod.

 

The hotter it is the worse it is to run no thermostat. The coolant can cycle through to fast for the radiator to have time to cool it. Thats why race motors put a restrictor in there. They don't run a thermostat but they still need some means of slowing the flow of the coolant. No thermostat is still better than one stuck closed though

 

I may do the 190 winter thing, I am pretty shure its the thermostat. I let it run for about twenty mins with the rad blocked and it finally came up over the cold line into the "normal section" It still dosent get near the center of the gauge but I did notice the heater got a little warmer as the temp went up, I say its stuck open and its going out, unfortunatlly I have to wait until payday to buy $7 worth of parts She will be ok till then. What are the ill side effects of the car running cold? I know there are some.... fill me in plz
-Dennis

 

Well the thermostat was not stuck open... it was broken. The bottom assembly was completly broken from the top plate, all I can say is wow. I have never seen that happen before.

Thermostat R2 IAW 1H-28014-563 Section 3 Par. 4, ops checked good, returned to service.

Sorry I have been woking too much lately LOL
Anyway that fixed it running cool.

I replaced all the sway bar bushings as well with the Polyurethane ones from autozone (ground down to a flat washer shape to fit) and that makes a huge difference as well, I highly reccomend that everyone replace their old worn out ones!

I would love to keep rambling but I have to take the tops out and go for a spin!
Happy New Year!
-Dennis