New Car Old Questions

[THE ANORAK]

Bought a 1989 900 S off E,Bay for £52 drove it 72 miles from Sheffield yesterday to home and now the questions have started.
The heater was not working so my 12 year old daughter followed dads instructions to re-attatch the control rod cos dads carpal tunnel has left not much sensation in the fingers to fiddle behind radio etc.
Now the control rod works but the blower switch will not and the vacum system is not pressurised to move the various options, also the max defrost select on the vac system is not operating at all.
Any pointers before the tearing out of bits will be a big help!

[Jezzadee]

By max defrost do you mean the two large <=> arrows? This is nearly always a vacuum leak somewhere. Check for unplugged hoses under the bonnet and also that the plastic vacuum canister in the wing has hoses coming off it and is not split.

[THE ANORAK]

Already checked and also listened for any tell tale hissing but alas nothing hissed in my ear, yes <=> this position is not even operating electrically so maybe today another investigation.

[DaveS]

The max defrost electrical connections are on a microswitch located at the bottom of the air distribution control. If you remove the switches to the right of the cigar lighter, it's burried just in above them - very difficult to get access to, but with the stereo removed, you can *just* manage to do it, with one hand accessing from below, and one from above.

I just had to reconnect mine - when I reassembled my dashboard, I'd connected the wires at the wrong places on the microswitch. There are three connections on the switch, but only two wires to connect to it. A mirror in behind makes everything clear!

HTH

[Tomarse]

the vacuum pipe that fed the heater controls on my 83 900 came from the engine, across to space on the the drivers side behind the front wheel yet infront of the door. Then I think it went to a reservoir and then through the bulkhead into the cab.
If this pipe were disconnected i lost all the heater controls. It also caused the CO2 emissions to drop enough to get it through an MOT with worn carb needles and jets