Heating Levers Don't Work

The Heating levers to my 73 450sl will not cut off the heat to the car. There are two sets of these levers. The one next to the drivers seat under the radio will not stay down when I push it down to cut off the heat. The previous owner had the heat cut off but I'd like it to work... My mech. said that it's a 20 hour job to fix the problem. The dash needs to be pulled to get to the heater box where the cable goes to. Has anyone ever fixed this problem. My mech. said that almost all older SL's have this problem and all the owners just wear an extra coat to fix the problem.. HELP!!

[jerryb]

Find a new mechanic. The heater valve is vacuum operated and is on the fire wall in the engine compartment, you may have a vacuum leak, you may have a bad valve, or the controls in the dash may be bad, but you could operate the valve by hand if you need heat.

[hill]

If your SL has bad heater levers and you don't have the time to fix them. You can unplug the vacum line on the heater control valve at the firewall. Remember to cap the hose. This will give you full heat. I checked fast lane when working on a slc and they didn't have any then, but you can find new ones advertised in the star.