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Hi, anyone has an idea for easy sliding heater cables from dash to flapperboxes?

In most of the cars coming to our workshop, the button is very hard to tear, even after inside cleaning of the guiding tubes and with new carefully inserted, untwisted cables.

Hi Albert,

did you found a solution for this one? I have faced similar issues - everything is new and flaps move nicely when used under the car.

Br,
Aki

Wonder how much of the stiffness is in the dash (the 2-3" extension with the positioning lock built in) I can't remember, but I think the cable was crimped into the back of the knob assembly, to sort it out you might have to disconnect in the splitter block in front part of tunnel, pull out orig front cable, feed in a test cable, connect at splitter & test, and with the orig dash & front part in free in hand it can be test for binding. working off of 40 year old memory, so if this notion is flawed my apologies. Ray

Make sure the tube going into the tunnel is not moving. Also make sure there is nothing else obstructing or impeding inside the tunnel. The original wire used is a hardened wire; the wire should not stretch but might want to "bend" or spring back a bit. To correct this you need to remove the wire and clamp the wire in a vise then use your drill to twist the wire in one direction then untwist the wire. The wire will be straighter afterwards and will be easier to adjust. The same technique is used to straighten a wire. For the heater cables the wire is easily replace with music wire. The music wire is available in any size, most sizes run a couple of thousands shy of their stated value. Ray's suggestion to separate the cable at the junction block is a good start.

Thank you Ray and Rick for the valuable advice - I'll try those out. The tubes are secured in place so no flex on those. So far the pushing the knob down is the harder direction, untwisting the wire could help on that. Any recommendations on the wire size? So far we have tried 1mm and 1.8mm wires.

Rick Albro wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 12:20 pm To correct this you need to remove the wire and clamp the wire in a vise then use your drill to twist the wire in one direction then untwist the wire. The wire will be straighter afterwards and will be easier to adjust. The same technique is used to straighten a wire.

Rick

Would you mind explaining that procedure in a little more detail?

I would like to take credit for this technique but the method is much older than I am. If you do a quick search "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4-QF-WRFjQ" comes up and shows the basic idea. I think in the video they go further than what is needed and they do not unwind the wire. With hardened wire, the wire could fatigue and snap if you continue in only one direction. If you are putting new wire in, the wire is coiled and wants to return to the coiled shape. If you straighten the wire first the wire's action will be much smoother. I know that Albert had some dialogue on feeding the wires through with out getting them twisted. I used 0.049 that measures about 0.046" or about 1.2 mm.
Albert wrote... "Undo the interface from its 2 leaving cables.
Tear one of the 2 cables out of from the U-tube down to the tunnel.
Put some oil in the U tube‘ s upper hole.
Tear strongly the remaining cable in Dash direction and fix it.
Then slip in the 2nd cable from tunnel in the U tube.
So it can’t twist around the 1st one.
Tear on it and fix both cables in the interface.
Works correctly then.
Albert"

I believe that "Tear" means to zero the wire out or to make it tight with no slack.

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