The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Heater thermostat control bypass

With all of the changes in the appearance of the website, I'll be darned if I can figure out how to do a search anymore, so I'll just come out and ask the question. Has anyone removed the heater thermostat control unit and by-passed it with an aftermarket butterfly valve type of setup? My control leaks at the seal where it mounts to the firewall. I'm not seeing any leaking around the heater itself and I understand those thermostat control unit seals often go bad. Rather than repair the unit, I thought I'd take it out and bypass it with a butterfly valve type setup. Someone mentioned this to me today as an option. I'm curious as to whether others have done this and, if so, what all is involved. Thanks guys and gals.

Havent used a butterfly one,but the kit for your orig. one is
Napa/Balkamp part# BK660-1000,"heater control repair kit".

check the parts stores for something that looks like this - all that's involved is removing the original and replacing it in the hose under the hood - works fine, controled by a cable to the dash, and can be used to shut water flow right off in summer

Bill

Marty, Bill, thanks for the replies. I bought a repair kit from Classic Parts and have yet to install it. I may try that first and see if it fixes the problem. Bill, that photo looks like what was described to me today by a friend. He said it was controlled by a cable inside the cab. Thanks again guys. One or the other will do the trick.