1500 Spitfire Heater Refurbishment

[Black Cat]

Hi,

Removed my heater unit as it wasn’t working properly when the car was on the road to see what the issue is and also give it a good clean and a coat of paint. Apart from the hoses being split there was also a broken linkage fitting on the top of the unit, which will need to be replaced.

I have looked on both Rimmer and Moss Bros and neither seem to supply these.

Does anybody know where they can be acquired from or am I looking for something that is no longer available and should therefore be looking for a replacement heater unit, either from a Spitfire of perhaps a different car altogether?

[Colin Lindsay]

Very easy to find (except when you really need one!)

You can either buy a complete unit from somewhere like eBay and replace yours with that - it's sometimes simpler in the long run, especially if you need the car and so can just do a complete swap, or where the one you have is very rusty and starting to look moth-eaten and raggedy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-Spitfire-IV-SpitfireIV-1500-Twin-Speed-Heater-Matrix-Motor/323268189060?hash=item4b44491b84:g:seMAAOSwKtlWoiUF

Seeing as how you've removed yours already, you'll get that small bit from any of the good(!) breakers - try Chic Doig, details in The Courier. you can e-mail him the photo to confirm the bit you need, especially if like me you never know the proper name for that bit..

[Pete Lewis]

looks like a part for 3D printing    but guess theres no parts volume to back up the costs ,

the joys of Mazak    ( formerly Zamak)    nasty rubbish with a low tolerance of corrosion , work ageing and cheap sh1t .

i wonder if you could build it up with some chemimetal of JB weld to give it some life ??

Pete

 

[Peter Truman]

If there is that much corrosion I'd also be concerned about the Zamak pivot pin, where the shallow hole is in main body of lever, but that could be drilled out and tapped with a suitable bolt using the protruding bolt thread as the pin.

Where the little broken offtake lever is the Zamak appears to be full thickness so could the offtake lever be removed & replaced in steel & riveted/tapped the Zamak could be relief filed down to make the lever flush.

My mum used to tell me "there's no such word as can't". There's a real sense of achievement in making do & fixing something irrespective of how much buggering around and how long it takes.

The whole thing could be copied using a bit of Al sq bar, with offtake lever riveted on!

Yeh I know I'm just persistent, stubborn, and won't let something defeat me!

Peter T

 

[Pete Lewis]

All hail Meccano   

Pete

[Black Cat]

The other problem I now have is, when I removed the linkage unit it just fell apart into half a dozen pieces, so now i’m going to attempt to re-manufacture it, was thinking about using aluminium, or would this cause a reaction?

[Colin Lindsay]

Only over a relatively long time, and you could probably coat it to minimise any reaction.

[Black Cat]

As I couldn’t obtain the broken linkage fitting on top of the heater unit for my 1500 Spitfire I decided to make a replacement. I put a tread onto the top of the paddle wheel which sticks out the bottom of the unit, put a brass nut on, made a new linkage out of a bit of flat brass, placed another nut on the top and set a couple of solder-less nipple into the brass plate to take the control wire and hay presto, it works fine.

 

Also, completely stripped the unit down, treated the rust, repainted and replaced the old foam packing inside and wrapped in bubble wrap for installation at a later date.

[Ian Faulds]

Excellent. I will not be beat engineering at its best. Well done. 

[GT6M]

if yer heaters no as hot  as ye want it t,be

then a  a couple of wee mods I did, meks it even better

 

1, int heater inlet box, I fed a ally heat tube into it,

t,other end is onto the rear ex mani stub,

this meks heater blow warmer air sooner for de,misting,

as heat oft mani is faster than the water

Also, cos heater aint suck,n in v v cold air, then heater works better too.

 

2, int  water pump , just underneath the termostat,  {  If the 4,s  are same as the 6,s  pump housing, !! }

there a wee wol, this lets  hot water go into impellor bit, and then into the pipe feed,n the heater.

in the cast iron type, this wee wol corrodes up, so v little  hot water gets t,recirculate,

I med the hole bigger than it should be, so get moer heat into heater matrix.

 

M

[SpitFire6]

Hi Black Cat,

 nice one.

Do you any more pictures to share? Is that the wire wound resistance wire in the bottom?

I want to fit a door solenoid to mine & wish I could see what the two flaps do at the extremes. My control knob stays at demist setting for 99.8% of the time. No flow control valve and fan voltage is boosted to 15V. The fan now causes any dashcam to blur. Need to change it.

Did you remove the heater with the transmission tunnel in place? Only four screws to remove?

Cheers,

Iain.