I've got a problem on the rear HVAC system with the Blend door. ANybody have a step by step how to replace or a link to a good step by step?

Matt Wi

 

I'm not sure if it's the same as the older vans (mines a '92). Mine is vacuum driven full hot or full cold. If I'm under full power it defaults to floor and full heat. SUCKS. Also if vacuum is low it takes for ever before the over head vents come alive and blow cold.

Here's what I did. Left rear interior panels have to come off. In mine, unscrew upper panel and pull off, it has clips. Then lift the lower panel up after removing the screw revealed after taking the upper off. You'll find the the blend door in the duct work. I put mine in the A/C position and used a dowel rod to hold it there, had to drill a hole through the plastic. In the winter I remove the dowel rod and set it to 1/4 open, that way it's not full heat.

Hope that works for your van, like I said mines a '92, but they haven't changed much.

 

Leardvr,

Thanks. I'm fairly sure once I'm in there I can get the door in. My shop wanted $300 to do it. I looked up the part, it's $30. Is it worth my time. How long do you estimate to pull the panels?

 

It'll be electric, not vacuum, doubt it'll be an easy task, they really seem to work hard to make parts impossible to service and replace.

 

Can't say about electric or vacuum. Getting the blend door itself in and out won't be easy. The panel itself won't be hard, take your time. All and all a couple to 3 hours

 

The blend doors indeed have issues but it could be one of three things: door itself, drive motor OR the dashboard mounted temp control. The main reason dealers charge a fortune is because the factory manual requires dropping the steering column complete, removing the dashboard complete BEFORE even beginning the heater box repair! What a joke---lucky I have a few great mechanic friends who advised me well..

Remove the kick panels just below the passengers side dash--it should just pop off. Next there should be a bolted structure which holds the kick panel---six 8mm headed bolts and it falls off---set it aside. Looking at the heater box you'll see chromate screws surrounding the box which holds the outer shell to the inner----should be 7-10---not sure how many now. Most are easily accessible with 1/4" drive extensions, one or two better removed with a universal joint on the extension. It should be easy to dislodge the two halves but you'll encounter a bit of a restriction that's easily overcome.

The heater box plastic is quite flexible and simply yanking on it does the trick. Its highly unlikely you'll do any damage to the outer half but proceed somewhat slowly but forcefully. Once this is out of the way you should be see the heater core and blend door---drive motor is on the right hand side of the inner box shell. At this point my memory is fuzzy whether the core needs to be removed in order to replace the door but its a distinct possibilty---this is the real problem at least for me.

The Quick Connect fittings can be a bear to uncouple so after struggling too long with them I simply "destroyed" the accessible plastic bits and slid the hoses off the core which is the only way to completely remove it. (As it turns out these pesky Quick Connects can be replaced with standard hose clamps of the worm screw type. The new plastic bits are also typically available from Ford at a cost of about $30---I went this route myself)

Given my year and mileage I changed the heater core, drive motor and blend door since it was already apart. Turns out the drive motor had failed---without removing everything the blend door's condition would have still be in doubt so it was changed to avoid redoing this any time soon again.

Ford wants to sell the blend door complete with both halves of the heater box for quite a sum. I found my parts on eBay---since they're so readily available there is an obvious need for them. Most of these parts seem to be used throughout Ford's models. I believe for that same $300 in a shop I did my work and had about $50 left over!

I'm new here so if posting to something too old I apologize---just happens I have some first hand knowledge in this particular subject!

 

JWA, the op was asking about the rear lend door.

But your guide is excellent.

 

Yeah---I noticed that just now----sorry! My enthusiasm to help overpowered my ability to discern actual questions!

I have no experince with the rear heat/AC units however......might be similar though? Having seen a few factory installed that weren't covered by the Club Wagon interior panels it seems there were somewhat similar to the cab mounted enclousures. Pure speculation though----sorry to have leaped without looking!

J W

 

I'm happy to have found JWA's post here about the front blend door. I've heard they charge $1000 to fix it. I'll be tackling it myself, and am happy to learn that perhaps removing steering column and dashboard can be avoided.

I know this is an old thread, but believe me, when people have blend door problems, they'll find it!

Scott in Penfield NY

 

Yeah it is kinda old but always contains the same info when needed----glad it was or will be helpful.