Heater Lever Cable

[Roman Kishi]

Urgent Help

I'm in the process of replacing THE Lovely heater levers. I replaced all 4 levers. The cable that is connected to the left lower one is dead frozen. Any idea what to do and how to free it, I don't know what's connected to on the other side.....help..urgent.. I can't go to bed without fixin it

Roman
Northern Virginia
280 1969,Signal Red, Auto

[Raymond]

Try "Heater Lever Article" from this forum from April 23rd.


http://sl113.org/articles/maintenance/maintenance.asp


Ray
'68 280SL 4-spd Coupe

[gugel]

Are you sure it's the cable that's frozen?  The lower left lever opens the left heater door, which is in turn connected by a rod to the infamous heater valve, which is often frozen.  Caution:  the heater door incorporates a pin holding one end of the rod leading to the valve.  It's all too easy to break off that pin by forcing the heater lever.

If the heater valve is frozen, see this thread:
http://sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=2514+valve

Chris Earnest

[bpossel]

Hi Roman,

If you have air-conditioning, like I do, getting to the heater valve is very difficult.  If you still have the dash apart, and have access to a syringe, squirt some PB Blaster in the cable and let stand for a while.  Then carefully try to move the cable in and out.  When I replaced my levers a few weeks ago, my heater valve was slightly sticking.  After some PB Blaster and some careful in and out of the cable (prior to installing the new levers), the valve and entire cable slide like butter.  Another option in place of a syringe would be to go to a local motorcycle shop.  They sell a small device that clamps to the end of the cable and allows for the small tube of any standard can of lubricant to be inserted so that you can direct the lubricant spray into the cable.  Somewhat more messy than the syringe method but would also work.

Good Luck!
Bob


bpossel
Memphis, TN.
1971 280SL
1997 E320

[mdsalemi]

Gents,

SOMEWHERE in my bag of tricks from a former life, I have a special tool used to squirt lubricant into a cable. You can use it with any cable such as the heater cables, and with any lube that squirts out of those little red platic tubes from an aerosol can. You can still find this tool in a bike catalog:

http://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cgi?id=251680937988&d=single&c=Tools&sc=Cable%20and%20Housing&tc=Lubricators&item_id=PC-LU

Having the correct tool is half the job done.

In this former life, some years back, there was a premium bicycle cable called "Ultra Glide" that used teflon-coated cables, and nylon-lined housings for what appeared to be a zero-friction cable.  You used to be able to wind up that cable pretty tight in many coils and still push and pull the cable through the housing.  Try to find this NOS at a bike shop, and perhaps you'll have the ultimate retrofit and the very last heater cables you'll ever need.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored