I’ve had a couple heater craft heaters in ski boats before… the pull out tubes are AWESOME when you stuff them under a blanket and turn the fan on high.
Defrost or heat, I’d rather use propane for heat and not suck down my range
Yeah, I can totally see myself riding around in full sized jumpsuits hose-jacked into the car like astronauts cruising around on the moon.
Thanks for the info. I sent tommy a email but it came back as undeliverable. I would prefer to keep the factory heater. I hate to toss it because of one small part that went bad. For those few times that I would use it, Flipping a switch on the dash seems so much easier than dealing with a propane heater. Thanks again.
BTW - I also looked it to that surplus company that sells a generic 72 volt heater. At first it looked tempting but I’m not sure how difficult it would be to adapt it since it’s not the same unit. Also a little apprehensive about a plastic housing.
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Here is the capacitor: 440L Ceramic Disc Capacitors - Vishay | Mouser
as for the thermal re-settable fuse, you’d probably have to figure out what temperature that was designed for and see if you can find a replacement. It appears to be mounted on an insulated plate since the power rivets and heater wires are all in contact with it and this means that thermal re-settable fuse is not ‘in contact’ with a hot surface but instead is in the air-flow so the entire mounting system needs to be able to withstand the high temps.
Odd to see 24V on the side of it though.
Look under that part with the 24V on it and see if there are numbers or specs listed.
The disc thing is a varistor to protect the contacts on what looks to be a bimetallic thermostat
I was thinking that’s what it was going to be but a search turned up a capacitor looking much like it… visit the link I’d posted and click the part image/enlarge button to see a better pic.
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I also was puzzled by the 24V but it’s actually 2UV. Someone else posted a photo of the exact same part in their heater and it’s clearly 2UV. (I don’t know what 2UV means) The other side of this part has 140 C on it and what I think is plus or minus 5.
Can’t find something small like that one but there are many 140C resettable thermostats out there.
Going to a vendor site might find something more like the original which would be better for an automotive installation due to vibration. ESPECIALLY on a pre-2005 GEM.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Selco+CA-140-QC18
Without having one to play with I’d only be guessing that this is an overtemp device.
140c/284F.
It doesn’t look robust enough to be a temp regulating thermostat meant for constant cyclng and bouncing off all the time.
Self resetting is nice, but you never know if there is an issue until it totally fails from too much cycling which by coincidence this one did.
Perhaps a manual reset would be a better replacement. Mount the reset access in a fairly accessible path. If you have to do it too many times you would be more apt to go find the sock that was sucked up in the intake.
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I have a complete and working heater that I took out of my 2013 $100 + shipping if you want it
I will keep it in mind if I’m unsuccessful in my repair. What state are you in ?
I gave up on trying to repair my heater. Exhausted just about every avenue and came up empty. Advice to anyone else with this problem is don’t waste your time like I did. Big thank you to everyone here who tried to help.
Where are you PandD?
. . . . . . .
Located in central Florida
I’m in California. I’m guessing $30 to ship it
I’m also in CA. I have a few things on the bench, but can also take a look at it.
I found the heater on eBay and placed the order. Hopefully it won’t be too difficult to adapt.
I clicked on that the other day and it arrived at my door about an hour ago.
OMG! That is the cutest little thing!!!
I was totally expecting a fairly large box that was going to be tough to fit in somewhere.
The heater box is about the size of a tissue box and the fan is like a large mug of coffee strapped to the side(Maybe a peanut butter jar).
As pictured, The output side is open so you will need to fab up a plenum to channel the air into the car ducts if you plan on still using them.
You might be able to use something from the original heater box? Don’t throw it away just yet.
Are these my brother’s heaters? Did they come with the duct dampers and control cable?