Replacing Heater Lever Contact on '81 SC

[dromano]

Hi, this is my first post (attaching photo of my 1981 911sc).

I have to replace the heater lever contact to ground the heater blower in the engine compartment. Does anyone know if I need to disassemble the entire parking break lever to get at the contact? Has anyone done this and can provide some guidance?

[universeman]

Nice car. Working on my heater levers now. A few things:

1. No need to remove brake handle. Just lift carpet and remove the single nut holding the levers to the handle. Then remove bolt while keeping track of all the washers and disks, they'll want to fall into the tunnel! You've been warned

2. Contact is on a metal plate/disk. Recommend you ensure it is the problem before tearing in. Lift the handles and inspect the contacts - they should make contact with the baseplate, and you should hear the fan come on at that point. If you do not hear the fan come on, try using a jumper wire between the wire/spade connection and the baseplate. If still nothing, most likely your problem is in the engine compartment (did you check the relay?)

3. Porsche Parts Catalog has a good diagram of how all the disks go back together. If you leave one out, the levers won't stay where you put them (ask how I know.)

4. Manually connecting the fan connector in the engine bay to 12v power can isolate fan motor problems. You should definitely be able to make the fan spin with a 12v battery directly connected to it. Then check continuity between the wires in the bay and the wires on the heater levers. IIRC, how it works is the lever switches complete the ground

[dromano]

Thanks! Glad i don't have to take whole thing out. I'll give it a whirl. Blower is working strong, but the contacts aren't connecting, one of them is bent. Fix that and and replace the heater control boxes that are completely rusted out, and i'll have heat!