[Healeys] 100 Heater motor or switch problem

[Larry Wendland]

Roland, I know you meant an intermittent "open" because if it was a short, it would have blown the fuse. The word short gets misused to often. As I wrote before it could be the wiper inside the rheostat is a little tired and needed some re-positioning when he opened up the housing. 

Larry
'67 BJ8


-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Wilhelmy <sentenac.rw at gmail.com>
To: Michael Oritt <michael.oritt at gmail.com>; Austin Healey <healeys at autox.team.net>
Sent: Fri, Oct 26, 2018 2:24 pm
Subject: Re: [Healeys] 100 Heater motor or switch problem


                                                                                      
Michael-
It still could be an intermittent short in the wires to the rheostat‎. I'd suggest wiggling the wires while the fan is running and the wires are as close to their installed position as possible. 


-Roland
                                                                                                                                     


                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  
From: Michael Oritt
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2018 8:58 AM
To: Austin Healey
Subject: [Healeys] 100 Heater motor or switch problem




About an hour ago I popped the spring clips off of the heater face-plate which gave me access to the back of the rheostat switch. I first verified that there was power to the switch and then jumped across the two posts with a screwdriver. The heater motor came on full blast, telling me that the problem was in the switch, which had felt a bit odd when I initially encountered the problem a few days ago as the "detent-like feel" when turning the fan on was missing. Though I assumed I had identified the problem as being in the switch I nevertheless turned the control knob just to see how it felt and--wonder of wonders--the fan motor immediately came on. What's more it responded perfectly to the rheostat, going from full blast to low just as it always had. 


I am 100% certain that I had the ignition switch on and the heater power lead connected with an intact fuse and I can only say that this is a typical Healey deal, and now that the car has my attention I am sure that should I simply close the heater up the switch will probably act up at some point in the future. I'm going to investigate whether I can source a replacement switch, either Lucas or not. I'll also take the opportunity to repaint the front plate in black crackle and I am going to close off the top opening that supplies heated air to the two vents in back of the windshield, which seems like a waste of hot air.

Thanks all for your patience and advise and I hope this gives some of you who have experienced similar situations a laugh.




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