FHC resto nr. 67; Heater rebuild Part 6

Finally found a few hours to work undisturbed on the heater. In my last post on this subject I finally got round to closing the lid on the heater unit. So it was time to get the linkage rods etc. back in place, starting with the air intake house. I hadn't fitted this back to the heater yet, as it should be much easier to fit the plastic lever to the main flap's spindle. This assumption proved to correct, as it took some force to get the plastic lever back on the axle. And this way I could easily support the opposite side of the spindle on a block of wood. After this the housing could be fitted to the heater unit, and the other bits could be added to this side. The metal lever was even easier, once I found the picture showing me the orientation and position of the various rings that keep it in its intended position:

The lever for the flap that directs the air to the footwells proved more difficult, as the whole bulk of the heater unit was in the way while supporting it on a suitable piece of wood. But after a few careful blows with a copper hammer that too slipped into position without to much problems. That only left the two connecting rods to finish this side of the heater:

The other side proved slightly more difficult. It started bad enough when I noticed one of the pop-rivets keeping the dashboard levers in position had already torn itself loose. In the end it took almost half an hour to drill them both out (just to be sure!) and replace them with heavier items. Fitting the various levers and connecting rods turned out to be fairly easy but time consuming. For pushing (or hammering) the arms onto the flaps' spindles I again used my well proven method. Support the flap's spindle on a piece of wood and push the lever arm home with a suitable seized socket. In case of recalcitrant pieces a copper hammer was used as extra persuasion. With all three arms in place it turned out that two of the connecting rods needed some slight adjustment. Again as easy as it sounds, loosen locking bolt, push flap in correct position and tighten locking bolt:

And that brought me to the last jobs for the day. The first of which was fitting and connecting the wiring loom. Again glad I took lots of pictures when I dismantled the heater in early 2017, otherwise it would have been much more of struggle to get it all back together!

The last job for the day was fitting the support for the bulkhead passage and seal. Most time here was spent on searching for large outside diameter ø3mm washers for the pop-rivets:

Only jobs remaining before the heater can be returned to its rightful place are fabricating new seals for the passage of the coolant pipes through the bulkhead and the condensation drain on top of the transmission tunnel. Also need to find some slim flexible coolant hoses to connect the heater to the bulkhead passage ...