Got the first one together, two more to go. Not sure why a special tool is needed to bend the tines. Is that special tool for the copper head with the two outlets, or the bellows? The copper tube was no problem just to do with a brass hammer and screwdriver wedged in to make sure it didn't bend outwards. The bellows is the hard one. For that I used 3 hemostats and a long needle nose. Once everything was pinched square, I put the needle nose almost across from the tine, then used a wedge on the top (to overcome a lip that wouldn't let the pliers fully crimp) and that worked pretty good.
In the end, I did something I learned years ago in the Air Force. I got a can of Freeze Spray and once it was all assembled, to test it, I shot it with the Freeze Spray to see if the plunger would move. It did quite nicely so it turns out at least on this particular Valve, the thermostat is working. Hot water out of the tap made for the Valve to move the other way. You can watch it working which instilled the confidence I needed to do the other two!
Thanks to all who posted. Your posts help a great deal in instilling confidence or at least poking me into doing a Hail Mary. I took a lot of pictures of each step and will be writing an article on this in the next few days. It is awesome to have you old timers (I'm getting there too) to step up to the plate when people have these questions. Hats off to you guys for sure!
One point of interest; this Valve came on all trucks of the time with the Harrison Deluxe Heater, and it did not come on the ones with the Fresh Air (round core) Heater right? If that is correct, what did the Fresh Air Heater folks do for thermostatic control?
