I was pulling a heater hose and I broke this little black coupler. It has an arrow on it but doesn't seem to be a one way valve. Just a restrictor. Why do I need it, or do I need it?

 

Welp a 7/16" deep socket saved the day. Still curious about the valve though.

 

I looked up the patent # and found it's more complex than just a restrictor. Whatever was in there broke and got pushed into my heater core. The parts dept can't find it in there diagrams.

Patent # 4800925
"A two-stage flow controller for use in a vehicle heating circuit including a housing defining an inlet and an outlet and a flow control chamber disposed between the inlet and outlet. A spring biased flow controller is disposed for sliding movement within the chamber towards and away from a valve seat. The flow controller includes an annular segment defining a through aperture and a plurality of axially extending legs which support the segment for sliding movement within the chamber and in predetermined alignment with the valve seat. Projections are defined on a face of the annular segment. When the fluid flow exceeds a predetermined level, the projections initially engage a valve seat surface such that a variable orifice is formed by clearance regions between a confronting face of the element and the seat. The element deforms to diminish the clearance space between the face and the seat as a function of fluid flow rate. In a preferred embodiment, the housing includes two portions that are snapped together and are maintained in their assembled positions by a resilient retaining ring. Locking lugs are supported beyond an end surface of one of the portions by a plurality of arcuate tabs which together define a segmented groove having a diameter larger than an end bore defined by the portion. The other portion is sized to fit within the end bore and includes a groove for receiving the retaining ring when compressed. When the second portion is inserted into the bore, the retaining ring expands outwardly into the segmented groove to maintain the engagement between the two portions."

 

So I know this was ages ago for you but what happened? This valve spring a leak for me and when I attempted to remove and replace it the thing snapped, visits to the junk yard revealed valve after valve snapped in exactly the same way. Do you still have the socket in there? did you find a supplier for the old 4677378 Mopar VARIABLE RESTRICTOR VALVE ?

 

http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Mopar-467737...alve-/83617648

I have read some have deleted the valve and not had any problems.

 

I still have the socket in there. The only thing is the heater works really well now. I left it running full blast for an extended period of time and the plastic in one of my vents distorted a bit. Maybe use something with a little more restriction than a 3/8 drive socket. I'm still not exactly sure the purpose of the valve.