Alrighty folks,

The 62 Lancer I acquired recently has finally been driven. Up until this point, I'd only driven it about 10 miles as I've been overhauling stuff and rebuilding things.

My problem is, the heat isn't all that great. Specifically, when I turn it on, the blower motor is definitely going, but even on high DEF the amt of air coming out is meager. Is this normal? I checked that the floor vent levers were both pushed in towards the firewall (I believe this is the open position for heat) and stuck my hands down there. Definitely a hint of heat, but nothing to get excited about.

I took a quick gander at the FSM and my guess is that some vent someplace isn't opening to allow enough air through. Anyone have any suggestions as to the likely culprits?

Thanks in advance!

MJ

the heater unit on your Lancer is the same as on my 60 valiant.

To activate the defrost, there are two vacuum acutuator diaphrams that (when working) do a combination of push/pull on a bracket which slides a lever that controls a door inside the heater box (under the dash) that redirects air upwards to the defrost vents.

If those actuators are damaged, stuck or not working completely, then the door may not be sliding all the way to the open position to allow air upwards. Consequently, the air that you feel blowing BOTH down or up could be little, depending on what position that internal door is in.

that's the only thing i can think of, short of your blower motor not operating at full capacity. Oh...I just thought that also, if there is a bunch of leaves/dirt or other debris in the cowl air intake, that could hinder how much air you're getting inside.

hope that helps...

ok i'll check for leaves and the vacuum pulls. The blower motor sure sounds like it its working hard--its pretty loud The car has been garaged for the last 20 years so i dont know what kind of debris might be in there. I'll check it out.

Off to explore the undersides of the dash!

thanks

MJ

Lancer man is your heater valve plugged? It is on the engine side& is connected by a cable inside the car, usually these things are frozen open/shut there by reducing the amount of coolant ot the heater core thus heat problems. Check out the posts on the 60 valiant there are some pics of your system & the heater switch that should help, did you go with electronic ignition or the petronix!!!!

A old heater core couldf be your problem as well.

JZ

This weekend I had a little late night time to work on the heater. 3 things of note:

1--passenger side floor vent jetisoned a bunch of leaves on friday afternoon--and later that day, the defroster and floor vents seemed better.

2--Driver side defroster sends warm air now, but its really feeble even at the high fan setting.

What's the best way to attack a blockage on the driver side? remove the glovebox? I'm *hopeful* I maybe have some debris in there that's stopping it up

MJ

Yeah...blockage or maybe torn/disconnected defogger hoses...

I had that same problem with the leaves. I opened all the ducts and removed the heater core cover and there was enough leaves,pine needles, spider eggs, and some how cigarette butts to build a small army of scarecrows. air flow has improved i would say about 126%. thats pretty good if y'ask me~

Thanks for the suggestions--I'll get looking inside that heater cover and see what mess I find =) Is there any kind of special sealant you have to apply to the heater cover when you put it back on? Mine has a black goopy stuff around it at the moment...

MJ

Black strip mastic (comes from the hardware store, packaged on a roll sandwiched between layers of plastic-coated paper).

ty kindly