1961 Deluxe heater. What is this little plunger thingy?

[67GMCcampercruiser]

In the picture there is a plunger type thing that goes up to an adjustment screw. I can pull it out with my fingernail, then move the lever to push it back in. The second picture shows what looks like a wire was broken off the end of that plunger thing. Is there supposed to be a wire on there? Where would it go? Maybe a solid copper wire? Some sort of sensor? Any help is really appreciated.

[Rolland]

Looks like you're missing the thermostat wire. It should lead from where it is broken off to the under side of the heater core, where it is coiled up in a circle about 1 3/4" in diameter.

[67GMCcampercruiser]

It looks like I will have to buy a whole new unit like this. Can I buy a new one?

[Rolland]

Long obsolete, heater control valve # 3149596. They sometimes show up on Ebay. There is a seller on Ebay, delcojoe, who used to rebuild them. Also a guy in California used to advertise a rebuilding service.
Some people bypass it by adding a shutoff valve. If you do a search of "all about heaters" here on this 60-66 forum you can learn more.

[67GMCcampercruiser]

Okay thanks for the info.

[67GMCcampercruiser]

I managed to take that brass plunger thing off. The snap ring pliers were a great help to unbend the tabs. Looks like the copper wire is soldered in to the head of this thing. I'm going to heat this and take the broken piece of copper wire out and solder in a new one. Does anyone have a picture of what the copper coil is supposed to look like? I imagine that the copper wire coil would be held in place with clips of some sort instead of just laying under the core.

[Rolland]

The coil was originally held in place by a U shaped plastic clip that was pushed into the underside of the core. Mine was broken so I just tied it in place with some nylon fishing line.

[67GMCcampercruiser]

How big is this coil? How many loops of copper wire are there? This coil was completely missing on my heater.