I was driving my teener this morning up here in the mountains with the top off. I pull my heater lever and my 40 year old cable broke.

I have searched and read the threads on this forum. I climbed under the car and it is definitely a broken cable. Reading the forums told me the cable is one piece and loops on the lever.

My question is threading the new cable. Looking under the car it looks like there is a a cable tube. Does this go all the way to the lever from the firewall?

Where do you start the threading: Firewall, Lever?

As usual, any advice and help will be appreciated.

I think I found the correct cable on Pelican Parts:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/smart/...76%29%2C%20Each

My teener is a 73 so it looks like this will fit?

There are two tubes, right and left and as I remember, one side is longer than the other ( the cable).

Thread thru lever then thread each thru the tubes from inside the car.

Tube are exposed in the center tunnel when you remove the lever.

Thanks, Slits. I really appreciate your help.

with her.

Pretty easy actually. The drivers side is shorter (double check that).

Order some covers from the VW folk (CIP1.com). They'll help keep the water out and prevent future rust.

Take them off the barrel nuts, remove the old covers if they're still there, remove the 13mm on the hand lever and pull it up and out. Thread the new one through the lever like Slitsie-pooh suggests (remembering which side is shorter), then install the little rubber covers and reattach the barrel nuts. Bolt the lever back down and give it a whirl.

E.

On my car, the tubes are bent and the ends of the cables have straight rods on them (little over an inch). I used a vise and a hammer to bend the cable ends to get them thru the tube. My approach was trial and error, I "adjusted" the cable ends several times before they would fit.

I also found one side of the cable to be too long no matter how I installed it. This was a topic a couple of months ago. I measured the gap/overage and straightened and rebent the cable

Yikes! I hope I don't have that problem. What year was your teener?

Mostly a '73. The firewall is aftermarket for reasons that I don't know. Perhaps the tubes were bent when it was installed.

Sounds like it. It should be one of the easier jobs on a 914.

Easy? Eric you have just given this job the kiss of death! How many easy jobs turned out to be a bitch? Happen to me many times! Hope you are right! I need a easy job!
Thanks for your help. Ordered parts today.

I did a search and found this thread. Not winter, but.

I decided to pull out the heater lever and replace it with a rebuilt one. Uppon removing the cable it got stuck on the drivers side. (The passenger side slid right out easy)

I can't push it back through and it is super tight and I am a bit nervous it will snap if I try to use brute force.

I did notice there was grease on the cable, this is a good thing.

And I thought this was going to be easy!


Any suggestions?

Looks like the tube in the engine compartment was a bit bent too much. Was able to bend it and slide the cable back.

Good Grief...gotta love the 914 !