Provincial Inspection Nightmare

[iceneweb]

I drove my 1964 bus back from Edmonton a coupla weeks ago, and ever since then I've been extremely busy getting it ready for inspection. It's a bitch though when you fix one thing, and then the thing you fixed before that starts acting up, and you notice something else that needs sorting out . . . I just want to get this bus on the road!

Tonight I tackled the mouse nests in the heater tubes. The shop vac sucked out all kinds of crap and it was working great, but when i went to move the lever for defrost/foot heat I heard what sounded like the plate inside for the control fall off and go down the vertical metal tube arrrrrgh! How am I going to get in there to fix it? Those tubes look like a reall tight fit, plus they're welded together. Any ideas?

My main nightmare is welding up the behind the front bumper support. It's got a few holes in it, and the PO shoulda really done it while he was repairing the cab floor. Now it's a bitch to get at, but I have a plan to patch it and at least get through the inspection.

Anyway, just venting. If anyone out there has any answers regarding the above or knows of any magical inspection places, please PM me . . . . cheers

[steveo_32]

ahhhhh that sucks?
I have never heard of that plate falling off?

I have spare's but you need to get out the tube....not so easy...

[iceneweb]

Thanks, Steve.

Yeah, I had it going great for a few minutes and then when i went to operate the lever I heard 'tink' , and that was the end of that! I did some research on Samba, and it can be removed, it's just a bitch grinding off the welds and messing up the OG paint.

[BUSDADDY]

Shure it was the flap falling in? pretty rare. More likely something that was previously dropped down the defroster vents descending to the next level of hell.

Leave it in there and duct tape over the front floor vents if you really want defrost, same result without all the grinding and swearing

[iceneweb]

Good point. I've got an endoscope (feel free to let me know if anyone close by needs to borrow it) so I'll look thru the vents and see if I can see the flaps moving.

[iceneweb]

Well, I had a look with my scope, and the plate has definitely fallen off. I could probably remove the lower tube to get the plate out and restore cab heat, but to put the plate on means all sorts of loveliness . . .

[Bruce]

Can you go down there with a magnet?

[iceneweb]

Can you go down there with a magnet?

Maybe, but it would have to be about 3 feet long, and it's the later type with the vents, not the square opening. Worth a try though, perhaps a rare earth magnet attached to a piece of string?

[oldbugger]

A magnet would stick to the tube  you could try a 1/2 hose taped on to a shop vac hose and see if you can suck it on to the end

[iceneweb]

As a follow up on the heater flap, I ended up having to file out the spot welds and do a whole lot of persuading to get the heater tube out. Getting the plate out of the lower heater tube was tricky. I had to dissasemble the upper tube to weld the plate back in.

It was a lot of messing around, but I now have a working heater system.