MG Car Club of Geelong
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Restorers Corner

Online preservation group that members working on projects can get assistance by email or in a forum. Add a short note and get a reply to solve issues or thinkg you just don't know. This can also be a good way of getting those parts you may need to restore.

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Posted by Guest
Sat, 30 May 2026 at 9.07am
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MGB Heaters
Do you struggle to move your heater control from Off to Interior to Screen? Have you ever removed your heater and found it nigh on impossible to get it back in? I have a way of dealing with both issues.
The standard heater airflow direction control uses a solid wire in a flexible tube that takes a tortuous route from the knob to the heater. They are invariably stiff because the solid wire grabs on the tube due to the kinks in the tube caused by the path it has to take.
The solution I put in place, designed by Chris Baraciolli, uses a 12 volt servo, like those used in model aircraft, to operate the flap in the heater box that controls the airflow direction. I nice, flexible bit of electrical cable then takes the same path as the original solid wire back to the control knob. The control knob now turns a small electrical component that sends the appropriate signal to the servo. The control knob is now as smooth as butter to turn!
Regarding reinstalling the heater box, it is a horrible job due to the constraints of its location and design. The heater box has a section below the firewall shelf, into which tubes are pushed to provide the air to the cabin. It is this bottom section that causes the problem. The solution I have in place, also designed by Chris, involved cutting off that bottom section, welding flanges onto it so it could be put in place first (along with the tubes), then installing the top part of the heater box, sandwiching the flanges of the bottom section between the top part and the firewall shelf. It is now easy to remove the top section, and much easier to get the tubes into the bottom section from the engine bay rather than having to dismantle the radio speaker housing to try and push them in from the cabin.
If you want more specific details of how to do either job, let me know! Cheers, Nick (0404800613).
 
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MG Car Club of Geelong
P.O. Box 296 Geelong Vic 3220
Phone 0485 996 544
ABN 23 218 145 979
Email info@mgccgeelong.com.au
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