Vintage air heater w/ defrost install

[j_cst_10]

I installed this last year and thought I would share. The factory heater box was too large for my engine package and I have been driving around the last several years without heat which wasn't too big of a deal but not having defrost was the issue.

I bought this general purpose unit from vintage air p/n 506101

The nice thing about it is that the blend door and the coolant valve are electronic. The unit requires one 12v tap in (I used the factory fan wire) and everything else has it's own supplied wiring harness. I believe it is made in USA and was around $250.

My only complaint is that the low speed fan setting is still very high and noisy. I may try to slow it down in the future but for now it seems to do a good job.

[j_cst_10]

The box tucks nicely out of sight.

While I was at it I had to relocate a couple gauges that were previously where the heater control is now.

[BigBird05]

How large are the controls? could they be installed in the ashtray opening? could you a picture of the firewall where the blower motor was?

[j_cst_10]

I can't take any measurements as my truck is in storage at the moment. Here is a picture of the controls to give a better perspective.

The aluminum plate in the above pictures is where the factory box/blower motor was previously.

[pjmoreland]

That is an impressive price. What is the thing that is mounted where the original blower motor was located?

[j_cst_10]

It's a round disc that got RTV'd around the hole. There is a guy on ebay that sells the aluminum block off plate and blower cover for a bunch of different vehicles. They are around $40 bucks or something

[jarrodblake]

Looks good! I used the same unit in my 70 30 with the cummins for the same reasons.

Originally Posted by BigBird05

How large are the controls? could they be installed in the ashtray opening? could you a picture of the firewall where the blower motor was?

Yes the controls are small enough to be mounted in the ashtray opening.

here is the back of the controls.

20201222_210827 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

I milled out a factory heater control that I picked up on ebay

20201211_214440_001 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr
20201226_151931 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

Here is is installed under the ashtray you can see it is small enough to be mounted in the ashtray opening if you wanted to put something else in the factory heater control place.

20201226_211056 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

I did the same thing with the opening I found a guy selling 7" inch Aluminum Disc 2mm Thick on ebay it was like 12 shipped. I used seam sealer and 3 self tapers.

20201102_195332 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

[j_cst_10]

I like the idea of using the factory heater control frame, that looks good.

[72again4x4]

J_cst_10,
Wondering how the routing of the vent and defrost hoses works out. Looks like it has two outlets, did you run defrost and lower outlets?
Thanks in advance,
Roger

[j_cst_10]

So the two outlets are for both defrost vents. There is a door flapper below that is hard to see. It has the option for defrost only - door closed, floor only -fully open, or blended.

[72again4x4]

Perfect, thank you.

[Dodge68charger]

Just Wondering when you wired this up if you went straight to the battery or to a keyed ignition source for power?

[jarrodblake]

Originally Posted by Dodge68charger

Just Wondering when you wired this up if you went straight to the battery or to a keyed ignition source for power?

I used the factory keyed brown wire, it's the same gauge that's used in the heater kit. I connected them using the supplied circuit breaker.

20211231_023922 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

[Dodge68charger]

Originally Posted by jarrodblake

I used the factory keyed brown wire, it's the same gauge that's used in the heater kit. I connected them using the supplied circuit breaker.

20211231_023922 by jarrod vanwinkle, on Flickr

Thank You
Posted via Mobile Device

[j_cst_10]

I did the same as well. That way you still use the fuse in the panel for it and it's goes on and off with the ignition key.

My only beef with the system after having it in service for a couple years is the blower motor noise. It is smaller and spins much faster then the factory blower which was huge and moves big volume at low speed.

That being said I really only use it for the defrost function so I can see when it's cold and rainy. It works well for this so all is good.