On my 68 S4 Elan the heater is off when the knob on the dashboard is fully pushed in. When you pull it out towards you, the heater goes on.
Now I have a 73 Sprint as well and in this car the assembly works in the way that the heater is off when knob is pulled out, so it’s exactly tho opposite. Problem is once you are driving the heater cable pulls the knob back in, thus activating the heater.
Are there two different heater valves for the Elan?
What is original?
I’m pretty sure on my 1973 Sprint that the heater is ON when the knob is pulled out - can’t check as it is off the road at present - I remember having to leave the knob pulled out to give extra cooling to the engine and avoid overheating which was ok in winter but hot in the summer!
Sounds like you have a Europa valve on the Sprint, it works the other way round.
Off should be pushed in on the Elan
And now a hundred people will tell me their car was delivered from the factory with the heater off when its out …well its Lotus
Also if you screw the new valve in and it is 180 degrees out. i.e lever at top against lever at bottom. That should give you the opposite effect as well.
Is it possible to undo and reorientate the valve part within the casting 180 degrees
Clive
My late 72 Sprint is exactly as the pictures, and heater is off when the knob is pushed in.
I guess the problem in trying to reorientate 180 degrees is that the hose connection will foul the top of the passenger footwell without lifting the engine about 25mm.
As a matter of interest - what is the thread size?
I got rid of the horrid looking valve and fitted an in-line ball valve inside the car.
Since this shot was taken I have: got rid of the ribbed top hose, tidied it up with a 90 degree bend, ally pipe and straight connector, fitted a TTR 26r ally radiator, been very happy with the results.
I don’t have the owners’ handbooks in front of me bit ISTR that in the owner’s handbook for an S4, it is (deliberately ?) vague as to whether Knob in = heater off or on. It says something like “Adjust the heating by moving the control knob as required”.
However, in the Sprint handbook, it does actually say which position gives which temperature.
Clive,
Bit awkward with the valve 180 degrees out. Water outlet to heater and cable entry would both be facing forward. Therefore, almost impossible to have opposite effect for heater control. You could rotate valve 180 degrees, remove the rivet from the body of the valve and move actuating lever back to a position where the cable will operate the valve, but why one would do this is beyond me. Suffice it to say, that if the correct valve is used, there is only one right way to fit it without modifing hoses and cables.
Also the image displayed, that has been downloaded from Google, is not the correct part for a baby Elan.
Also, also, knob in = heater off, knob out = heater on. This is straight from the Owner’s Handbook.
Colin.
“Sounds like you have a Europa valve on the Sprint, it works the other way round.”
Brian,
My Elan and my Europa came from the factory with identical valves. On the Elan the cable is attached on the bottom and leads to the rear as does the water outlet. On the Europa, the same valve is rotated 180 degrees so that the cable is now attached on the top and leads to the front as does the water outlet. For both cars, when you push the knob in, the valve closes.
Brian, it’s 1/2" pipe. Mine expired one Sat. morning many Julys ago in Barstow, Ca. on Rodeo Day, after waiting for the Parade to clear Main St. I was able to source enough plumbing parts( gate valves, nipples, etc.) to get back on the road and rethink the idea of going to Arizona for pizza!
This part is also used by Triumph, I’ve seen it on a TR6.
If you look at the two pictures above they are different, the top picture has the cable push/pulling from below and in the bottom pic the push/pull is from above. fatboyoz has the right suggestion in saying these can be dissasembled by removing the rivet, I’ve done it (easy job, cant remember why, maybe it came from a TR6!) and if you do that to the bottom pic rotate by 180, you’ll have a pull for on and heat cable.
Off and on is determined by the plunger being pushed in or out, in is water flow stopped and therefore heater off, it’s not clear in the pics which way the diagonal ‘slice’ that the plunger moves on is made, but this will make a difference as to whether you need to push or pull for off or on.
My one is with the cable underneath for a straight(er) route from the dash, and pull for on and heat.
A lot of posts for a heater valve, had to make mine lucky 13.
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I have about 250 in stock
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For everyone who has complained that the heater control does not stay where it was put, rotate the knob about half a turn and it will lock there – just like the choke cable.
Does the original heater cable have the lock facility? I agree that he choke does but there is no mention of this heater lock in the manual.
My S2 does not have the heater lock but it is not the original cable.
If it did, someone might have mentioned it before now.
I have recently, for my sins, bought an Audi TT as my daily-driver/sensible family car(!). I had some questions so joined their equivalent of Elan.Net and I am appalled by the amount of clearly wrong information which is posted on that forum. Elan.Net is seen as a the global forum for expert Elan-related knowledge, lets try to keep it that way.
If the original poster had said “I know that many of you, over the last 50 years, have had issues with the heater control cable moving; well mine seems to have a twist/lock facility, am I not a lucky person?” we might have been telling him “Yes but it is not original”, rather than what I have written above.
Herb, you’re absolutely correct of course, the proper Elan does have a lock-off facility on the heater cable.
The Wilmslow kid is, as usual, refering to the economy run-out model of the Elan, the S4 / Sprint, which had so few of the original Elan’s mutitude of features.
After reading the replies above stating that there was no lock on the heater cable, I started to mistrust my memory, so I went to the garage and tried it. Yup…it locks where you put it just like the choke cable. My Elan S2 is one-owner (me!) and the cable is original. If they used a different cable on later models, all bets are off.
BTW, the knob on my heater cable has broken. Can the knob be replaced without removing the cable assembly or must the entire cable be replaced?