Hey everyone,

I noticed yesterday my heater valve was leaking, so i decided to replace it. I've never done this before, but I didn't think it would be any big deal at all. Just pop off the hoses and vacuum tube, pop in the new one, right?

Problem is, I forgot what direction its supposed to go in. I've hooked it up 2 different ways and so far my heater no longer works. My heater DID work when the old leaky one was still in there. Is this the right direction or am i doing it wrong? (Top of picture is firewall side, bottom is front side)

Bottom left hose goes to thermostat, bottom right goes to water pump.

 

ok after looking at a friend's truck, i realize it is on backwards. So I turned it around the way it should be, and my heater still does not work. I wonder if crapozone sold me a bad valve?

 

My first one was cracked and now the new one leaks when ever I turn the heat off, so yeah, they can be bad.

can you move the part the vacuum moves by hand and see if that allows the water though?

 

update: i guess the valve was bad. I put the old leaky one back on and the heater worked great. So I went back to autozone and swapped it out so now its working and not leaking.

After reading up on them here, I may soon regret not getting one from Ford.

 

Very possible. The original Ford valve seems to be good for about 10 years. I've talked to a couple of people who went through 2 or 3 of the chain store valves in a single year before going back to OE.