I'm in the middle of winter maintenance/repairs and tested my AAR and it didn't heat up/close like it should. I pulled it all apart and found the heating element was broken. I have found references to 13ohm/1watt bathtub resistors can be used to repair it. But haven't found any instructions outlining how to do that. I would think solder will melt once the resistor heats up, right? Has anyone done this repair and could provide instructions/pictures. I found resistance wire on Amazon that was measured to be 13 ohms for 6 inches. If I wind that into a new circular coil, how do I attach it?

i think (but could be wrong) that ian karr has a you tube video on how to rebuild an AAR for D Jet. if D Jet is what you own?
perhaps do a you tube search for ian karr vids.

i run L Jet and I don't think those AARs are really rebuildable - might be why i remember coming across i karr vid, i was looking around while back.

If you could find a way to rebuild one it would be a valuable resource service to provide the community. NLA and hard to find. Work in progress to see/confirm the Nissan 280ZX one substitutes but that is NLA, too though maybe more used or NOS units out there.

Here's a link to Ian's video on YouTube. Hope it helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBdjLrxvBIM


Mack

Ian just frees up the valve in his, he doesn't touch the element part of it

@ about 2:50 you can get a good view of the element in place. It looks like it's a friction fit that has been riveting in place. I'm wondering if you drill out the rivets what you have under the ceramic? I don't think you have anything to loose in taking a look. There is no other way to attach it.

-Mark

Yeah, the heating element on mine worked, so I didn't need to mess with it. But I agree with Mark...looks like it's just riveted in.

https://www.kurth-classics-autoparts.de/gb/...ng-element.html

Maybe this will help.. replacement heating element... I did see on the Bird board a guy who walked through wrapping his with wire and desoldering, I just cant find it. Was for a 911 but same idea.

I drilled out the rivets, tossed the broken heating wire and have these pieces

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Wire was delivered today so I ran some tests. This stuff is like steel hair, very tiny, tough to see never mind work with it. A comment on the Amazon listing said 6" would have 13 ohms so I measured out 6", wrapped it around a plastic toothpick into a coil and tested it with the multimeter.
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It checked out. Next step I wrapped an end around a 16 gauge wire and put a dab of solder to keep it there.
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Then I connected it to a battery to see if it worked, and it did!
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I attached the other end to another wire then I ran the wires through the holes in the ceramic cup and hooked it up.
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I took my open valve and placed it over the element for 3 minutes.
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Checking the valve revealed that it was indeed closed as designed.
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I'm very happy this has all worked out so far. But now is the tough part, figuring out how to put it all back together. I think small long rivets to hold the ceramic cup to the steel cup. I can probably tuck the element wire under the lip of the rivet, at least on the ground side. How do I connect the power wire to the other end without touching the steel cup, or does it not matter?

brilliant.

i've got a spare AAV lying around from an 80s SAAB that looks like it might do the job on my 1.8 L jet. different design of AAV to the one you are doing.
i'm inspired.
i've done a fuel pump. you have convinced me its worth digging into AAVs next.

good luck with the next stage of getting it back together.

A new part-time job/service to offer. Awesome!

Nice repair, Bruce!

Great work!

That took real patience. Or patients, are you an orthodontist? I'm going to take another valve apart today to see if I can adjust it to close completely.
Did you take a temperature reading on the case when it was closed by chance?
Rob

IIRC, they originally didn’t close completely? I had tested and adjusted several on the bench. Timed the closure rate, and tested on my ‘75 L-Jet
In any case, nice work!

I didn’t take a temp reading.

they should close completely.
esp the L jet ones.

we have been putting a bit of time into trying to work out what the original factory timing on the L jet ones was. difficult to find out that information. not in any of the literature. repeated searches have got us to a time of approx 8 minutes. i found the info on an obscure/ancient type 4 kombi website. 8 minutes starts at factory spec temp the workshop manual says to test AAV at. which is off the top of my head 50 deg F (but might be wrong, workshop manual has the temp anyway).

as to how much they should be open at cold - another matter.

you can bench test an AAV to see if it basically works. is it open cold and closed shut when warmed. but what is difficult to do is work out how open it should be cold and how fast it should close.

@Van B has gotten real close to solving this one. Van would have to be the most driven member when it comes to having a proper functioning AAV.
he has replaced his with a later BMW one and he can tell you all about it.

D - Jets, thats another matter, but is suspect its similar amount of time.
takes about that long to warm up either engine from a base temp of 50 F.
it looks to me like you kind of can't go wrong with the start opening size with those older D jet ones? from the look of it. its a kind of rotating cylinder? just length of time or whether closing.

design of later L jet ones more of a mystery in terms of having right sized orifice to start with given that nature of the mechanism.



EDIT
oh yeah, this rebuild of the D Jet one by @brubou is fantastic.
i'm inspired to have a go with an L jet one, but i need a sacrificial patient to botch the surgery on a couple of times to see if its doable.