It’s heater season! For those of us who choose to drive their Bugeyes in the winter months, the heater, however diminutive and inadequate it may be, is a potentially important part of the cold weather driving equation. We do sell heater cores, (which you can purchase by clicking here) but more often, the component that fails is the switch that operates the blower motor.
The original switch actually served 2 functions: the first was to operate the blower motor, and the second was to operate a flap in between the blower and the heater box to allow for “recirculation” of the “warm” air already in the car once warmed up. Shown below is a video explaining this in better detail:
Unfortunately, this original combination switch/cable (used on all Spridgets from 1958-1970) is not reproduced, and as the switches became older and more worn out or become frozen internally, they have become something resembling unobtainium. If you can find them, they are quite expensive. We offer a solution: a simple push/pull electrical switch, the same one we use to operate the windscreen wipers on Bugeyes.
These switches work great if your original heater switch no longer activates your blower. With this fix, you will leave the heater door open and wire this up to activate your blower when pulled, rather than the twisting motion used on the original setup.
The only difference with using this push-pull switch in place of the original is the hole for the original heater switch mechanism was slightly larger than this switch. This means you’ll have to add some kind of spacer/shim to make the hole smaller, or weld the hole in the dash shut and re-drill for the smaller opening.
Click the photos below to get your own switch (or two, one for the wipers) and the other components necessary to make your dash look like new!
