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Yet another Blend Door fix thread - I don't know whether to apologise or not. I think I have come up with a new twist though so I'll post it.
My '97 Ranger exhibited all the classic signs of a busted blend door, and I was able to confirm it was the door, not the actuator, but partly removing the actuator (mine has snaps, not screws - unsnap the 3 I could reach and lift it up). I turned the temp dial and felt the servo shaft move, from which I could determine that when the door is forward-left, toward the front of the truck, it would blow Hot air.
I did this at a time when random chance had the door in the position I wanted - in my case, forward and toward the driver's side. That's crucial, as my temporary fix acts to pin the door in that position. Come summer I'll fix it for real.
I removed the glovebox door, which wasn't necessary but did make things easier.
Here's what I did:
Climb under the dash so you can look up at the heater box. There's a triangle molded into the bottom of the heater plenum that the door swings in, with the door axle recess at one of the corners.
By looking at the axle and figuring the door (at its bottom seal) is about 1/2" wide, I figured out where to drill a 1/4" hole that would be just "outside" the door. See the picture.
I used a 1/4" shorty pilot bit out of a hole saw because that's what I had handy, but it turned out to be ideal. Drill the hole about where you see it in the picture.
Then I made a sort of a "bobby pin" out of coat hanger wire from the office closet - it's got a little u-bend in it to allow it to "snap" into place, and bends at the bottom to keep it from going all the way in. See the photo, and imagine that about 1/2" up into the hole it's bent double.
After taking the picture, I crammed the wire pin up into the hole so it locked in place.
Basically the wire is bent so that it can be inserted up into the hole, blocking the door from falling out of the "Hot" position, and snap into place. This holds the heat full on until I have a nice day to apply a permanent fix. I applied this "hack" in the parking lot of my job in 15 min, including figuring it out.
My '97 Ranger exhibited all the classic signs of a busted blend door, and I was able to confirm it was the door, not the actuator, but partly removing the actuator (mine has snaps, not screws - unsnap the 3 I could reach and lift it up). I turned the temp dial and felt the servo shaft move, from which I could determine that when the door is forward-left, toward the front of the truck, it would blow Hot air.
I did this at a time when random chance had the door in the position I wanted - in my case, forward and toward the driver's side. That's crucial, as my temporary fix acts to pin the door in that position. Come summer I'll fix it for real.
I removed the glovebox door, which wasn't necessary but did make things easier.
Here's what I did:
Climb under the dash so you can look up at the heater box. There's a triangle molded into the bottom of the heater plenum that the door swings in, with the door axle recess at one of the corners.
By looking at the axle and figuring the door (at its bottom seal) is about 1/2" wide, I figured out where to drill a 1/4" hole that would be just "outside" the door. See the picture.
I used a 1/4" shorty pilot bit out of a hole saw because that's what I had handy, but it turned out to be ideal. Drill the hole about where you see it in the picture.
Then I made a sort of a "bobby pin" out of coat hanger wire from the office closet - it's got a little u-bend in it to allow it to "snap" into place, and bends at the bottom to keep it from going all the way in. See the photo, and imagine that about 1/2" up into the hole it's bent double.
After taking the picture, I crammed the wire pin up into the hole so it locked in place.
Basically the wire is bent so that it can be inserted up into the hole, blocking the door from falling out of the "Hot" position, and snap into place. This holds the heat full on until I have a nice day to apply a permanent fix. I applied this "hack" in the parking lot of my job in 15 min, including figuring it out.
