Back again. I bought my 57 Country Sedan for long drives. First one was to get it home from Bend Oregon to Boulder Colorado. Had the generator go out. Thanks to everyone here, I got home safe and sound and have that generator rebuilt and back in. Works great. My next trip is from Boulder to Chicago. And of course, a few more shake-out problems have arisen.



I had a horrible noise under the hood. Unsure if it was water pump or simply belt squeal. Replaced the water pump and now all is well. I still have the original pump, and I think it was probably the belt.



The other problem is that I've not had a working heater since I bought the wagon. I bought a B7A-18495-A heater control valve from Dennis Carpenter. Cleaned the heater core, installed new control valve and gasket and it worked fine for about a half an hour. Sadly, that was enough to make me think it was fine. Now I'm on a 2,200 mile road trip without heat, and it is unpleasant. There is a huge vacuum leak from the control valve. Should it be this way? I'm thinking not, but I really don't know. I've tried to seal it up with duct tape, but it hasn't worked.



Any tricks for getting heat? I'd be really happy to have it full blast all the time. I've already removed the mechanism which varied the vacuum the actual control valve, now running full vacuum to the new heater control valve. No heat, just a lot of vacuum leak noise.



Less than half way through the driving, hoping someone can help me keep warm!!!

Jim - Erie Colorado, 1957 Country Sedan

Jim: Is there any chance that NAPA might have one? What's your approximate current location? Maybe you can connect with someone on this site..

Paul

I spent an entire winter in Kansas City in my 57 convertible with no heat. Drive in movies lost their charm even with two of their little heaters it was still freezing! In the spring I was doing a tune up and heard a sucking sound under the hood. Found the vacuum line, plugged it in, and wallah HEAT!

That said I don't know any way to bypass the control valve. I would think it could be done. As I recall the lever push/pulls the control but vacuum pulls the duct open. Maybe you could jam the duct open somehow. Does your heater have the little door on the front? My 56 has one that can be opened to provide more low heat to the passenger side. Maybe that will help for a bit. Good luck. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

One solution is to get a 90 degree elbow and replace the intake control with it. This will give you heat all the time, but with a shut off you could semi regulate it.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

The dash control lever operates a valve that adjust how much vacuum reaches the control valve. It was fairly easy to bypass this by a bit of rubber tubing and a step-down vacuum coupler. So now the full vacuum from the fuel pump goes to the control valve.



The heater control valve is vacuum controlled and is mounted on the heater core The vacuum determines how much, if any, water flows through the heater core. No vacuum and there is no water flowing through the heater core. Unfortunately, with all the vacuum leaks on the new control valve, it is always closed so no water is flowing and hence no heat.



I get in touch with Dennis Carpenter and see what they have to say. But I'm hoping for a short term fix. I'm in Joliet, Illinois right now, just outside Chicago. Unless someone has a better idea, I'll see if I can find any place with old parts for cheap, and see if I can get another heater core. If so, then I'll see if I can find a radiator shop to braze in an open pipe so that full coolant flow is happening all the time. Then I'll have glorious heat. I can adjust temp by off/lo/hi fan speed, or by opening windows.

Jim - Erie Colorado, 1957 Country Sedan

Here's a pic of the control. On the back side of the short straight pipe is a vertical opening that mates with the heater core. The longer extension goes through the firewall and mates to the heater hose. A 180* bent tube with appropriate opening, brazed to the core, ought to do the trick. Or so it seems...





Jim - Erie Colorado, 1957 Country Sedan

The fitting in the front of the intake is pipe thread. You could screw a regular sink type shut off valve in the hole and adjust the hot water flow with that. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

This trick is used by several oufits - CASCO for instance has a T-bird version - to simply change the cable control over to directly run the flow control valve. The hardware used is a valve from a 60's /70's (maybe earlier) pickup and in some instances a longer length of cable would be required.

Just for grins I looked up a '65 International Scout on the "RockAuto" site - a 5/8 x 5/8 straight valve, a 3/4 x 3/4 straight valve and a 5/8 x 3/8 pipe 90° valve came up.

I also found a thread on the HAMB where one of the guys was doing this to his '56 Ford sedan.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

If you want to stay with your stock valve, here is one on eBay now with free expedited shipping that you could get by Dec 1 or 2.  It's 60 bucks.  Less than DC I think.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1957-1958-Ford-Heater-Water-Vacumn-Valve-/320481798462?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item4a9e34293e

Jim
Norfolk, VA

"MABLE"
1956 Thunderbird Green / Brown Interior (ZE-XG)

"MEAN GREEN"
1956 Mainline (FG-BE)

A cable operated flow control valve is used on the old Broncos, or at least there is one on my 1970 Bronco.  I replaced it a few years back with a new one I got at Napa.  Just might fit the older cars too.