MG Car Repair: Water control valve confusion, gear teeth, stock engine

Question
Hi Howard,  1968 MGB with stock engine.  I recently purchased a new water control valve; the old one was leaking.  The new one does not leak, but it seems the action of it is balky and stiff.  I also purchased a new cable for it, and have cleaned up the dashboard control mechanism as best I can, but yet I cannot fully open and close the valve. It requires (it seems) excessive force to do what minimal opening/closing that I can achieve.  It seems I have plenty of slack in the control cable, but maybe not...  What advice can you offer, please?

Thank you!
Dan

Answer
Hi Dan,

You should disconnect the cable from the control valve and operate it by hand. I should operate by hand but hard. If you look at the valve arm is in a groove that is at an angle so when you move the arm it moves on a ramp to push and to pull the valve inside. You can sometimes make it easier to move by placing a little bearing grease on the arm where it slides in the ramp on both sides of the valve.

If you got a new cable you should have pulled out the single strand wire cable and lubed it with bearing grease also and put grease on the exposed gear teeth of the control unit in the dash.

Also if you rout the cable so as to not make any tight bends because single strand cables do not work well with tight bends in them.

This was a common problem at the dealerships when new cables and valves and even the control were replaced. But we were usually able to get them to operate but all three components had to be greased not oiled.

Howard