Samurai heater box removal tip

[Sman]

We all know the SJ heater leaves a lot to be desired, last winter I froze my ass off in mine, I had rigged up a hot air pipe to take air from behind the rad through the old snorkel hole in the bulkhead to provide me with some heat, it was mild at best but still out performed the lousy heater which seemed only to blow cold air whatever the setting (I hoovered it out but it was still crap) I ended up removing the heater from my Sammy today and thought I'd do a write up to show how.

Here's how.

1, Disconnect coolant hoses.

2, Undo the hearter control facia and remove,

3, Undo the two securing screws located behind facia that hold the top end of the heater to the dashboard mounting frame. Undo nut on engine side of bulkhead near coolant pipes.

4, Now the heater box is totally disconnected, you will notice the heater box is snagged between the bulkhead, dashboard and gearbox tunnel.

5, Retrieve special tool 12883 from workshop. (see figure 1)

Figure 1 (special tool 12883)


6. apply special tool 12883 to heater box. (see figure 2)

Figure 2 (Correctly removed heater box)



7, You may notice that the heater box is now damaged and will not fit back in place.....................


8, ermm, hang on.........

[Stal1878]

[Sman]

I'm experimenting with these heater cores, they seem ok, just need to mount some PC case fans and fix everything down and hopefully be nice and toastey this winter.

[4x4menow]

factory heaters should be good if there not they may be full of mud and need cleaning out which is an easy fix.
My main concern is if you get a burst matrix or pipe which way the water will spray factory heaters have to be completely encased for this reason
cheers Nick

[Sman]

I know what you mean, I am going to lag the pipes and keep an eye on things.

I fitted 2 pc fans to the dash one today, the cab is much more cosy now.

[Darrell]

[Sman]

Its warm now, I've rigged up a couple of demister pipes to clear the screen too. The best this is, I can use the one by the seat to keep my pie warm.

[stats696]

Has anyone got any tips for cleaning out a heater? Because I seem to have heat to the screen but none out of the dash vents?? I guess this is a build up of cr4p on the heater core!!

I've seen a tutorial somewhere else about drilling a hole and hoovering it out however my heater unit doesn't seem to look like that.

[stats696]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54420481@N03/50380...7/in/photostream/

[4x4menow]

I did it on mine a couple of years ago and worked well
I followed a thread off the old forum which told you where to drill the hole on the glovebox side it doesnt take much dirt to stop them working
Mine was a early 410 and was slightly different from the later ones i was very close to drilling the matrix
ive got the heater box buried under a load of spares at the back of the garage over the weekend i will try to fish it out and take some photos showing where to drill
Cheers Nick

[Henry.]

Sadly i dont own Special tool 12883

However would tool 12884 do the job?

[Stal1878]

Tool 12884 always does the job.

[d86]

i think we need more info on the hole drilling thingy.......

good idea saves removing the dash..

tony

[Philpy]

http://www2.izook.com/?page_id=258

[Sman]

just wanted to add, I tried the hoovering / brushing out the box but it made little difference, I think this sj has been submerged in muddy slop for long enough for the matrix to get thoroughly blocked. There was no air getting through and the bulkhead was full of holes.

if you look at the broken heaterbox you can see the boxy bit at the bottom where the matrix sits (above the vents)

[Alex S]

I am in awe of your pie warmer! Every zook should have one

Stats696 - That's normal, the dash vents only blow cold air anyway, it's the same on a alot of Jap vehicles from this period. Think of it as climate control

I've always found SJ heaters to be very very good, I guess you guys have got some more cleaning to do

[Sman]

more work..

Got a smiths heater from a series landy in the scrapper...

Its a nice easy shape to mount, I am keeping the pie warmers (x2 now) but on a different circuit to the landy heater.




Also got sick of the beaten up old dashboard and thought I could do better, I think I'm going for a vintage look.



loads more to do yet..

[wonkeyedan]

loving the mole grip window winder

[Twiss]

That.... is a classy dash!

I don't know how much water it could take being covered in though...
You should varnish it to a nice colour

[Sman]

got the smiths heater in today.



more work on the dashboard

[Sman]