"The Snow Gates are Closed"

In the same way that the first sound of a cuckoo signals Spring, hearing on the radio that "The A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road is now closed." is, for us, the first sign of Winter.

A wake up call for me, too. Having spent several weeks messing about with plywood and glue, I'd neglected to sort out the snags that made the drive back from the AO Show more interesting than it should've been. I refer to the windscreen wipers that don't park, the puddles of rainwater on the floor - and likely as not inside the dashboard - and the lack of a blower motor for the heater/demister. It wasn't helped by the delay in getting the right bits to do the jobs - thank you, Craddocks - so this week's frosty mornings have called for a Reassessment of Priorities, as they say.

Fixing the wipers was easy, once the replacement park switch arrived. Once the wipers had dried out they worked normally but wouldn't self-park, so a bit of on-line research suggested the switch as the likely culprit. It took longer to get at than to change, but the result is as predicted.


The sealant in the wing panels seems to have worked, too. Elisfor has been out in the weather for 3 weeks now and hasn't moved, and there haven't been any new puddles, so perhaps....the final test must wait until she's driveable again. I've got new seals for the windscreen vents as well, which may help to solve another part of the problem as I'm sure they don't do their job properly at the moment.


The blower motor fuse is blown and the motor is seized solid. I found that out by taking the intake cover off, reaching in and trying to turn the fan, which refused to budge. A few days of soaking in penetrant had no effect, so it was a "box out" job. Getting the unit out and stripped down wasn't too much of a job and I was pleasantly surprised that the area of the bulkhead that was previously invisible is in excellent condition.

 I did find a few more reasons why the heating hasn't been particularly good....


The resistor that provides the 2-speed option isn't in the best of health. In fact, I'm surprised it's allowed the blower to work for as long as it has.

 None of the local electrical factors have a replacement so I'll have to rely on mail order again.

The motor was pretty sick, too. The seals had clearly broken down enough to let water into the housing and even though the drain hole in the motor appears to be clear, the inside must be totally messed up.

I'd already found that a replacement "original equipment" blower motor - the obvious way to fix the problem - was outrageously expensive, so some creative thinking was needed. Again.


More internet searching suggested this as a neat solution.

It does seem that it'll do the job so I got one and the fitting wasn't difficult. I don't know how much air it'll push through the system compared to the original if in top condition, but we've got so used to feeble heating and demisting it'll have to be an improvement anyway. Certainly considerably cheaper.


I thought that this would be the end of it, but a look inside the box was interesting. The foam, or thin sponge, that provides the seal to the various flaps had completely crumbled away. So, combined with the useless seals on the air intake and box-to-bulkhead join, any warm air was just leaking past the flaps and doing little good. I replaced the sponge with pieces of 5mm Silent Coat rubber sheet that was left over from the previous soundproofing work. Being self-adhesive, this was tricky to position accurately but will work much better than the original stuff, I hope.

While doing all this, I actually read what the Haynes manual has to say about the heating system and discovered, for the first time, that the left hand lever on the binnacle that I thought just controlled the blower actually has another function - it allows me to vary the opening of the flap that allows air from the box into the cab. The blower is only switched on when the flap is fully open. Tracing the operation of this cable lead me down to the hole in the bulkhead that the flap should cover...

See the screw? This holds the air outlet to the lower part of the dashboard. There are 2 of these but the other one is hidden. By some masterpiece of design and planning, these screws both come through the bulkhead almost exactly in line with the edge of this flap. At some stage in the past either these screws have been renewed or have been in place since the truck was built. Either way you can see how, because they're too long, they prevent the flap from closing completely. In fact, at some stage the driver must've had to force the blower switch enough to overcome the tenuous grip of this screw - you can see the "witness mark" - but clearly didn't ask himself why. 

Screw removed, normal service resumed. Flap can now close.

A bit like the buggered bolt in the transfer box..."What was that clunking noise? Ahhh, never mind, everything seems to work fine. Drive on!" The length of this screw has meant the flap has never been able to properly close, which might explain a few more things regarding the lack of warmth...


One of which might be the state of the matrix that holds the hot water for the blower to work with. Actually, it doesn't seem to be in bad condition but I'd bought a replacement anyway since, having gone to the effort of stripping everything down it made sense to renew it. Pulling it out revealed yet more crumbling foam but, more interestingly, the rivets that ought to have been holding the matrix cover onto the box had been replaced with screws. This can only mean that the heater box had been overhauled sometime in the past but the state of the seals didn't match the condition of the matrix so presumably they hadn't been replaced. A bit of a false economy since this might have led to the water getting into the blower motor. 

Anyway, all sorted, sealed and repainted ready for the new resistor before I can refit the fan housing. This had to be removed to get access to one of the inner flaps and will need re-rivetting, or maybe I'll use screws like whoever did the job last time has done on the matrix panels.