Broken heater

[IIA]

I'm looking for tips for troubleshooting the heater in my 1970 IIA. It's a Smith heater and when I try to switch it on nothing happens. I need to start with the basics - first how is this heater supposed to operate? There's a switch on the dash, a pull out knob next to it, and another knob on the long rectangular box below the dash - that one slides left-right.

Do I need to do something other than flip the switch to make this thing work? And if not, what should I check first?

Thanks

[Jim-ME]

See if you are getting power to the switch if you are see if there is power going from the switch to the blower. The pull out knob allows coolant to run thru the heater core when pulled out and the knob below the dash gives cabin heat (to the left) or defrost (to the right) IIRC.
Jim

[TedW]

Pullout knob is for temp. Leave pushed in for max heat.
Switch is for fan speed. Up is off, one click is slow, two clicks is fast.
Lever on box directs flow of air: one side is for car (air goes to your feet) and the other side goes to the wind screen. There is also a little
Door on the left side of the box you can open anytime to get air to your (driver's) feet.

You don't seem to be getting power to the fan. Check for ground issues first, then for juice to the motor.

[IIA]

You don't seem to be getting power to the fan. Check for ground issues first, then for juice to the motor.

OK, as if my lack of Rover knowledge wasn't already obvious: How do I check for ground issues and check for juice to the motor?

Thanks

[stomper]

Open the bonnet, and look on the left side by the bulkhead. the heater box should be the big black thing. take out the screws on the face of the box near the engine that surround the blower motor. Remove the blower motor, and unhook the wires. if you touch the wires to the battery, and the fan spins, the fan is good. clean up the mating surface, clean up the wire connectors, and reinstall. if it still doesn't work with the switch, replace the switch. You may want to use a vaccum to clean out the blower housing if you find any mouse remains.

[PavementEnds]

Depending on how your trouble shooting goes, you might find yourself where I was, with a motor so fried that the rusted metal flakes had bound up the magnets in the motor, and a plastic squirrel cage that had disintegrated! You can check out this thread of my rebuild of the heater. I sourced some easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive parts and give the part #s:

http://www.roversnorth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9692

Good luck!

[IIA]

Alright, I know I shouldn't re-open a 4yr old thread, but I'm actually picking up where this left off so I'm doing so to keep the info in one place. Back when I originally posted this, I gave up and had a professional fix the heater. But it's broken again and this time I'm determined to do it myself. But one problem - how do you get the blower motor out?! With it connected to the squirrel cage, there's not enough room to pull it out. It looks like I could disconnect it from the cage with an allen wrench by going through the wing vent, but I want to check before I do that. I tried a screw on the grill covering the vent and it feels like there may be a nut on the other side that I can't reach, so I don't want to create new problems. As you can tell, I'm trying to do this without removing the wing. Is that possible? Suggestions on removing the fan?

[SalemRover]

if you look into the eye of the squirrel cage you will see that it is attached to the motor shaft with an allen key set screw. There is a chance that it is an older style fan that uses a compression nut but my money is on Allen. Loosen the screw and withdraw the motor