Kombi Blog

While replacing the Alternator today I happened to drop an electrical connector down into the heater box or heat exchangers. While attempting to remove it I managed to push it further in! So I had no choice, I had to remove the Heat Exchangers to get it out, which I was planning to do anyway and this is how I did it.

I had already removed the tin ware connected to heat exchangers in order to remove the alternator so I didn’t have do that, but you will if you want to remove the heat exchangers.

I had to remove the tow-bar and rear bumper, I didn’t do this first but if I was doing it again I would start here. I picked up an extendable wheel wrench today and it came in real handy to remove the 17mm bolts that held the rear bar.

Next, I removed the exhaust which is held on by three 13mm nuts, two at the bottom and one at the top

With the exhaust off you will need to remove the heating elbow which was held on by a 10mm adjusting nut (right side of below image), and on the right-hand side at the back (ie back of the bus), there was also a bracket that was attached to the heater box (left side of below image). This wasn’t there on the left one.

There was a nut that was holding the exhaust tube coming from the engine bay onto the heat exchanger that I also removed.

With the tin-ware removed, bumper, heater elbow, and other bolts removed from the heat exchanger, the final step is to remove the four nuts that hold the heat exchanger onto the engine. John Muir’s book said that the nuts were 13mm but mine turned out to be 12mm - my engine is 1800L

With the four nuts removed the heat exchanger should pull off the four studs. Remember to mover your head out of the way because they hurt when they hit you in the head - yes, I know this first hand.

With the heat exchanger off I was able to retrieve the electrical connector that started it all.

And here is the whole exhaust and heat exchangers out of the Kombi.

Now all I need is a new exhaust and two new heat exchangers to put it all back together.