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Well, you were right. The valve was bad. Ordered a new one from FCP Groton. The one that came was an exact replacement for the one in the car. Started the job on Thursday and finished on Friday at 6:30. All totaled, the job took about 12 hours. The job was frought with difficulty: first, the little clips that hold the cable to the valve body kept breaking. Broke 2 when holding the valve in my hand and trying to get them snapped into place. Finally had to use the old one after I decided to put the valve in before hooking up the cable. Getting the cable snaked into the deeply buried valve body was probably the most challenge. Ended up hooking the body up to the long hose on right, then snaking it into place. Then hooked up the other hose (left side). Then try to thread the needle with the stiff cable....a most difficult task to say the least. After 2 hours of the needle threading comedy, I got lucky. Once threaded into the valve lever, then fish the cable under the Shelob behind the dash panel and get it roughly into position behind the heater control lever on the dash panel. THEN try to get the valve body clip over the cable. This was accomplished by putting the top end of the clip into the slot on the valve body, working from the left side of the valve body. This required some deft fingerwork that causes charliehorses in your hands. Once the clip was over the cable (I consider myself just plain lucky to have succeeded with that one step...it could have also been a nightmare due to absolutely no space for working), I used a small C-clamp to squeeze the bottom of the clip into its locking position. As you can sense, the tight conditions made it a downright miserable procedure from beginning to end. Anyway, the C-clamp saved the day because there was no way that one can exert the required amount of squeeze on that stiff clip where it is located. Nearly zero finger and hand room in there. From what I can tell, the new style valve is much more difficult to access than the old style valve (it's jammed between the firewall and the backside of the heater box). My car is a 93, so that's why it had the new style valve I guess. To make a long story short, once the valve was in, I took the car for a test drive. The new valve WORKS!! Would I attempt the job again. If there is a better way to do this without breaking clips and having to fight the stiff cable, then I might try another. If there isn't an easier way, I'd be tempted to let the dealership fight with it.........
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