A/C Heater Blower Problem

[CAP11]

My A/C/heater blower will not divert air out to the dash vents. All the air exits out to the floor vent. This was OK in the winter but now that summer is fast approaching I will need to get this taken care of.

Has anyone ever had a similar problem? I assume that whatever directs the air flow to the different vents works off of some type of vaccuum? Is this correct?

Thanks for any tips, tricks, and suggestions you can provide.

[mhicks]

There should be a vaccuum line going through the firewall with a little checkvalve on it. If the vacuum line is hooked up then it is probably the check valve. What year is it?

[CAP11]

It is an 85.

[rockman20]

Not sure on your 85, but my 83 was like this. Everything was good vacuum wise as well. What I found is that there is a diaphram that controls this door. That door is what diverts the air up for the vents or the defrost or to the floor. The diaphram worked great, it was that the bracket that the rod mounted to on the door was broke. The diaphram would pull, but that plastic piece would just split and it would do nothing. I messed around for quite some time with it. I finally took some stiff wire and made kind of a cage around it. )I couldn't figure out how to get it off without tearing everything apart) After I had that made up around it, I took some JB Weld and I mixed it up and smeared it around there so that it held the plastic and the wire and the door all in one. Let it dry and it still works to this day.

[CAP11]

Thanks to both of you for the information.

Mhicks, is the check valve your talking about under the dash or is it under the hood?

Rockman, glad to hear I'm not alone with this problem. Your fix sounds like something I would be proud of . Can you tell me where the diaphram and the door are located? Are they on the passenger side of drivers side? Do I need to remove the dash to get to these? I have been looking for something that contols the air flow but so far I'm not having any luck. It doesn't help that I'm a "full figured" fella and it's kind of hard to get to some of that stuff under the dash.

Any help is very much appreciated!

[CAP11]

I looked up under the dash and found what looks to be a diaphram located just above the floor vent. It has a vaccuum hose attached to it. It doesn't seem to do anything no matter what setting I switch to.

I'm going to experiment some more with it today. Any help or tips are welcome!

Thanks

[mhicks]

The valve is located under the hood. I at one time found the little lever broken inside the deverter box as rockman20 stated. I fixed it with a self-tapping screw with a big washer on it. If you take the screws out on the glovebox hinge you can see a black plastic box that some cables go to. There is a cover that is held on by 4 screws I think. When yo take that cover off you can see a little arm that sticks through the deverter flap. That arm has a plastic mounting plate on it. Operate your control from heat to ac and see if it is staying connected to the flap when it moves.

[CAP11]

Success!!

(Including this follow up in case someone does a search at a later date with the same problem.)

My problem was a disconnected vacuum hose under the hood. It seems that when the engine was replaced a few years back the hoses were all connected back up but they did not tie it in to the intake manifold. So there was no way for it to work. I had assumed that my problem was under the dash.

Thanks to those of you who helped. I'm not the most mechanical person in the world so thanks for steering me in the right direction.