603 Heater Water Valve

[Peter Hoskin]

My water Valve is shut and control on the facia is not moving all the way to hot and Canberra winter is coming! The valve would appear to be on the passenger side of the engine bulkhead somewhere behind the instrument panel. Can anyone advise on how to access to it and what it looks like?

[peter dowdle]

Peter you will find the control valve under the vinyl cover on the passenger side at the rear of the engine compartment They seize up with time and often rot away. Some CRC may help . If not they are avaiable on Ebay but make sure you get the one exactly the same as yours. Attached is a photo of a typical Smiths valve.

[Peter Hoskin]

Hi Peter,
Thanks for input but regret the 603 is not so easy as earlier models! I have attached photos somewhere which I hope will appear.
0893 shows the heater pipes going into the bulkhead. This is where the water valve is fitted in earlier models (the 408 has the same valve as a Sunbeam Tiger).
0888 is looking down the aperture of the air intake in front of the windscreen with black painted grill removed. It shows the outer cold air box with fan intake at the top and the open cold air flap leading into the inner cold air distribution box. On the floor of the inner box can be seen the copper pipe taking water to the heater matrix.
0890 shows a close up of this inner distribution box with the water pipes on the bottom. The circular vent leads to one of the vents on the facia panel.
The water valve together with the heater matrix must be inboard of the inner dist. box ie somewhere behind the instrument panel.
I suspect your 412 will have something similar? The designer had never heard of maintenance!
I will continue delving.

[peter dowdle]

Peter sorry to mislead you interestingly my 412 is the same as the 411. I am amazed that they would make a change like that when the 412 and the 603 were in production at the one time unless as mine is an early 412 the later ones may have changed Who Knows ?

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Peter Hoskin

The water valve together with the heater matrix must be inboard of the inner dist. box ie somewhere behind the instrument panel.

What a nightmare. Why on earth would they do that? Peter, please photograph what you eventually find and share it here on the forum.


Kind regards,
Kevin

[douglas j]

I think the valve is actually on the drivers side just above the dip and water jet foot switches, which are virtually impossible to operate as they are too hidden away. The valve is not like the smiths unit shown in the photograph and mine to had jammed but with a fair bit of penetrating oil eventually freed up. It also may be worth looking at the slider control on the dash as that is not the best bit of design and is held by a spring clip and does fall off, to see it remove the centre dash section and use a torch.

[peter dowdle]

Peter

Purely out of interest if you fold back the vinyl cover at the fire wall what does it cover. On the 411 and 412 there is , on the drivers side , the Smiths fan , in the middle an air distribution box and further over the Smiths Heater box. What does the setup on the 603 look like ?.

I am currently working on my Mk 2 version of intergrated air conditioning in the 411 by replacind the Smiths system with a Vintage Air unit which is both an air conditioner and a heater in the one unit. I had it working for heat (very good result) but I could not ,on my first attemp get enough air flow into the cabin to properly cool the car thus I am redesigning that part of the instalation.

What has been done on the 603 may help with my project.

Regards Peter

[Peter Hoskin]

Yes, the heater water valve is on the cabin side of the firewall just above and aft of the Dip switch area. The heater control bowden cable turns an operating wheel to which the valve is connected by a thin rod. In my case the valve was jammed but responded to a little encouragement and now does move but has been incorrectly connected such that the valve is open when the control on the facia is in the cold position! Re-positioning of the cable on the operating wheel would correct this but to get to it is a bit beyond my arthritis so plan is to leave it and see if I get heat without leakage. Removal of the valve will be a nightmare, I cannot see how it is mounted and suspect vent trunking will have to be removed and then? Hope the photos help, I repeat my comments about no thought of maintenance, the previous solution followed by models up to and including the 412 seemed sensible.

[peter dowdle]

One word only NIGHTMARE