heater ball

[cochino12]

the heater in my '83 Jimmy will only blow through the floor vent and I was told that I am missing something on the firewall. this guy tells me that there is some sort of ball thing that mounts where I have pictured and connects to the intake? any ideas? thanks

[old Rusty C10]

sounds to me like the cable that is suppoused to shift the doors from vent to defrost and floor may be broken or something on a non air conditioned truck ive never seen a ball up there and dont even recall one on an air truck i can honestly say both my non air trucks dont have one ( maybe thats why we call a truck female theyre ball less )

[cochino12]

where is that cable routed? how about those doors?

[corn]

mine did the same thing a few years ago but it was the trap door hinge. It wasnt much fun to fix either. take the inner glove box out & its behind a panel in the dash...corn

[Frank-id]

The heater ball refered to is a vacuum storage tank that keeps a small amount of vacuum to operate heater door motors.
The tank is black with a single 1/4 inch hose fitting. This tanks gets vacuum from rear of carb or fitting going to trans modulator.... Frank

[MJN]

yeah, there should be a vacuum ball mounted there. Not sure exactly where the lines run though, I know one runs inside just not sure where

[old Rusty C10]

the cables go from the heater switch to the heater box the easiest end to check is the heater switch cause you can take that out just a little and see if it operates right by removing the instrument panel bezel and the heater switch with a couple of screws.
to see if the cables are cracked you can follow the cables underneath to the box and see if they move
if you need a heater box or any of that stuff i have the whole assembly the switch two of the three cables and the entire heater box id like to get $35 plus ride but if a fellow board member can use it ill let it go for $20 plus the ride, and im open for trades too

[cochino12]

thanks for all the help guys, looks like I'll have some more stuff to do here in the next week

Originally posted by old Rusty C10
the cables go from the heater switch to the heater box the easiest end to check is the heater switch cause you can take that out just a little and see if it operates right by removing the instrument panel bezel and the heater switch with a couple of screws.
to see if the cables are cracked you can follow the cables underneath to the box and see if they move
if you need a heater box or any of that stuff i have the whole assembly the switch two of the three cables and the entire heater box id like to get $35 plus ride but if a fellow board member can use it ill let it go for $20 plus the ride, and im open for trades too

I'll let you know, hopefully soon

[KShortell]

Well, if you're talking about the vacuum reservoir ball, the one on my '86 Suburban is mounted to the firewall on the drivers side-- above the wheelwell and to the outside of the master cylinder. It's, say, 5" or so in diameter...

Hope this helps.