Or more importantly, where i can get one?


I see that it runs to the heater core, and it pisses water when it runs, but thats about all i know. The hose connecting to it from the thermostat is broken, and the top is some kind of strange molded fitting thats stopping me from just sticking a line on top of it. I think.

 

It's a heater control/bypass valve. When you switch the temp control to cool it shuts off engine coolant flow to the heater-core.

 

So, (theoretically) i could just switch the temp control to cool and not even bother with purchasing one? Or am I just being optimistic?

 

Well, you could do that but you will never have heat inside your Jeep and it's still going to leak so your Jeep will be overheating.

 

Just go buy a new one at your friendly local Schucks'O'Reiley's auto parts store. $35 bucks gets you out the door with a lifetime warranty. If it breaks you get another one for free. I did this and I am curently on the 3rd one since buying my Jeep. The part is a piece of crap plastic bad design but, you have to have it if you want your heater to work right. So, the lifetime warranty is the way to go. You pay once and never have to pat for another again when it breaks, again....and it will trust me.

 

I went to autozone (closest oreillys is a good 20 minutes as opposed to 3) and picked one up. 20.99 w/o tax. and it looks nothing like the original, but with some careful persuasion it works.

 

Be very careful putting the clamps on it. You have to get them really tight so they won't leak but, you can't go too tight otherwise it will crack. There is a fine line between not tight enough and too tight.

 

i just used the crappy stock clamps that you open with pliers and such, as opposed to decent hose clamps. the 'persuasion' was needed because it was a different design and now resides almost upside down in relation to how it was originally. but it works, so im happy.

 

my heat does not work. could this be why? i was searching for something on the heater core when i came across this post. is there any way to test to see if this is the problem?

 

Your heater core might be clogged as well.

 

The vacumm line connected to it will cause the heater to not work either.

 

how do you unclog a heater core? air gun?

 

4 oz. of C4, a blasting cap and 5 second delay to get your butt outta there.

 

bypass it entirely.

in 1997 they did away with the valve entirely. it does not help cooling in the least to have it in there...however, not having it at all is a great help to cooling, and it doesn't infringe upon functions of cold vent and/or cold a/c.


just get some metal tube that's the same OD as the ID of the rubber tubes, cut out the old one, and clamp in the tubes. take a screw and some RTV and rtv the threads then shove it in the vacuum line end.


I have 6 comanches here, and have removed that valve on EVERY single one of them with zero negative effects.

 

unclog the heater core by disconnecting those lines and, using a garden hose and H20 source, run it through the firewall ends of the hose...alternating every few minutes until it washes out clear.