tr7triumph.com

driving your wedge in the crisp Autumn sunshine......

Roof down, heater on full blast, no more deafening gearbox noise (Volvo 940 gearbox mount) and a new Holley 390cfm baseplate contributing to that V8 rasp and burble. A good thing I wasn't working today.

Adam

Lucky you.

35C here, & very muggy, with 70% humidity & a thunderstorm brewing. Not a day for topless motoring.

Still I know exactly what you are talking about. Driving on a cool night, with the heater leaving just your head out in the cool is about as good as it gets.

Glad you're enjoying it.

Hasbeen

I prefer motoring into the night top down with the stars above but nice and warm so a T shirt is all you need. Unfortunately with the few times I drive at night I only get to do that a couple of times a year.

Well my euphoria didn't last the weekend. At times I feel like the wedge is trying to fight me.

upon making some adjustments to the manual choke setting, I've found a damp patch in both foot wells this morning......... Yes it's coolant and yes I fitted s/s heater pipes and NOS replacement rubber sleeves only a few years ago. When the original items failed, they blew in spectacular fashion with steam filling the whole car on a cold dark night.

I'm not looking forward to removing the whole dashboard again to get at the heater...........

I often wondered on the advisability of using old NOS rubber parts on a difficult to get at area ( or mostly inferior new rubber parts for that matter). I alwats soak my old or replavement rubber parts in Maguiar's Rubber and Vinyl Cleaner and Restorer for a few days before installing. Don't know if it helps but better than nothing. Look on the bright side, since it's winter you can clean all the electrical connections under the dash including instrument panel, don't forget to clean the tac needle (if these hadn't been done before). Also don't forget the dielectric grease. At first failure I would be hard pressed to not put in A/C heater (no rubber joint connections), upgrade matrix (no joint connections) or VW matrix with modification (no joint connections).

Hi, I took advantage last time the dash was out to clean all the connector contacts so will probably do the same again. It's little compensation though.....

I still have my U connector from last time to bypass the heater. Its strange that there are small puddles on top of both footwell mats, I thought It would appear on the left side only as that's where the heater matrix seals are. Last time there wasn't any water escaping,just steam.

If it's a blown seal I'll go down the matrix-with-tails route. Anyone have any experience of fitting one?

Adam

Search this site there is a good write up of installing the VW (early Golf) heater core with pipe tails.

Minor trim of the heater housing where the pipes exit then all essentially drops in place. Reasonably priced and no pipe seals to worry about. I have in mine and works a treat. Rgds, DM

Hi,

Took the words out of mouth, will go the VW route if mine ever go.

Cheers John

Hi DM,

I take it you mean this thread? https://www.tr7triumph.com/forum/viewtop ... ix#p208583

When you say early VW Jetta / Golf, it looks like it's from a MK 1 from the description? IIRC a Jetta in the UK was basically a Golf with a boot and the matrix is as per this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NRF-Heater-Ma ... SwCGVX~5jL

They even give dimensions.

Thanks for help.

Adam

Cheers Adam, that be the one.

As indicated in the cross-referenced post only a small amount of trimming required and core drops straight in. Jusdt add a small amount of foam sealing strip to fill/seal around between the edge of the heater core and the casing.

Yes - Jetta was a Golf with a boot/trunk grafted on the back. Golf was a Rabbit in the USA.

There are a variety of cross reference numbers for the core, mine was a Nissens #73940, for late 70s etc Golf (non air cond).
Rgds, Daryl M

When I rebuilt mine I took the "matrix-with-tails route", iirc it was from Robsport (eBay item number:291692734169). It was fiddly rather than difficult to fit (a lot of pop rivets to remove/replace) but so far it works fine. But the VW core looks excellent value so would be worth a bit of adapting.

I did mine about two years ago with the replacement type with the stubby tails. I purchased mine from Leacy Classics and paid about £90 at the time. Wish I'd known about the VW unit. The replacement core appears no where near as dense as the original one and also doesn't appear to push out the same amount of heat.
Rich.

Heater bypassed until I'm able to remove the dash....





And I've at last bought an electronic flash unit to install when the dash is out. My V8 can reliably idle down to 500rpm which makes for slow indicator action.

A question for Hasbeen please - what type of washers did you fit to stop the dashboard creaking?

Cheers,

Adam

Fitting an electronic flasher unit is only a few minutes with your head under the column. Mine needed the additional earth so I bought a drilled copper earth bar (from Maplins I think) about 3" long and fixed it to an existing fixing point to allow for any future additions, not that there have been any to date.
(correction, I think I also ran an additional earth from the instrument unt when I was having some problems there).