The little red piece that snaps into my blend door is broken. The door moves fine and does not appear broken. I have a spare blend door and plastic red piece but it is a BEAR to get the red stubble piece out.

I read somewhere in another forum about cutting the plenum around the bottom pivot so one can pry down and remove the door. I'd love like to avoid removing the dash. If this is a viable is there a pic of how to cut the plenum?

1996 250 w/ac

 

Just thought I'd update the group as I finally replaced the blend door in my F250.





I spent a few hours trying to get the broken plastic actuator out, but it was in a position I just couldn’t get to very well.So I broke out the dremel and tried to cut around the lower pivot point the minimum amount to get the door out.I tried to leave a “hinge” point but alas the whole thing came out.It was kind of cemented in place from the lower pivot being full of sand.


The hardest thing for me was getting in position to do the work.You have to work on your back under the glovebox.I just happened to have a bench seat out of my van and it worked great to put it up against the door jam so I could lay in the position to work on it.








Afterwords I used a series of sticks, etc. to hold things in position while I JB welded it in place. The boss at the top where the cable attaches was broken on mine. The stick in the picture is holding it in position. I filled up the remaining spots with gray silicone. I was careful with the JB weld to check that it wasn't getting on the moving parts, and checked that things still moved while it was setting up.

 

last one i did was on a 96 F-superduty. i replace the whole heater plenum because it looked like someone used it for target practice with a 22 cal pellet gun. there had to be 50 little holes all over it. and the blend doors were welded half open. so it had ac in the winter and heat in the summer

 

Nice write up & pics Thanks.

 

Genius idea with the bench seat, @85Supclub . I've caused myself considerable pain working under the dash of my 1996 F250.

If you're still around, or if anyone else knows the answer to this question, would appreciate information about the red actuator on the blend door, shown in your photo above.

Does the bottom end of the red piece, showing through the hole in the side of the door post, just have a little triangular tab that holds it in place? Assuming that your red actuator isn't broken, could you release it by pushing that bottom end (horizontally while it's installed on the truck) with a smallish flathead screwdriver, and simultaneously pulling up on the top of the red actuator? (Like you can remove the fresh air door.) Or are the top and bottom blend door posts sunk too deep in the plenum to get the door out without breaking it?

Reason I ask is I'm going to replace the entire firewall side of the HVAC plenum/plastic housing and wondered if I could replace the blend door while it's off. Or do you need to drop the bottom half of the heater plenum inside the cab to get it out?

 

Hey there alanazon, thanks for the props. Forgot all about this, it has been working flawlessly ever since. Yup those bench seats are nice. We set them up for parties and such if they are out of the van. The red piece seemed like it would just snap out somehow. It is a different piece of plastic after all. I couldn't get mine to budge because the top was broken and there was nothing to grab on to pull with. Old parts seem to be kind of stubborn to move too. I assume it's pushed in during assembly. I personally wouldn't try it if you don't have a spare because the plastics are quite flimsy with time. If the door moves and still has the connection I probably wouldn't mess with it unless you have reason to get in there.

Funny thing is now I hear a dash rattle and wondering about taking it apart at some point anyway to install one of those reinforcement kits near the glove box.

 

Hey, thanks for replying! I was at a junkyard to get an outside air intake door, due to a mouse attempting to chew his way through mine. That door looks much the same as the blend door in your photo once you get it out, except with a black piece of plastic for the actuator instead of red.

My 1996 Ford shop manual has instructions for removing the outside air intake door...essentially, stick a small flathead screwdriver in the gap in the post, and push on the plastic tab on the end of the actuator arm to release it, while pulling up on the top of it. It's not too hard to get at through the opening in the housing when you remove the blower motor, and very easy to grab the actuator arm because it's sitting right there on top of the housing. But it was a real pain to actually get it out, for some reason. I guess, as you say, old plastic. There were two trucks in the yard, and I ended up getting one door out after a lot of poking at it, but honestly not quite sure exactly where I had the screwdriver positioned that finally released the thing. The little plastic tab that was holding it in got quite deformed from my attempts to to push on it with the screwdriver, so it was honestly a bit hard to tell. It came out looking kind of smashed like the red end of the actuator in your photo, lol. In the second truck, I never did get it out, no matter where I put the screwdriver or how much I jiggled and pulled on the top part of the actuator. Had to leave before I succeeded because the yard was closing and they were yelling at me, oops. It seems more difficult to remove than it should be, I guess because the plastic pieces get stuck together with heat and dirt and moisture over time.

The reason I was wondering if that blend door would come out in the same way as the external air intake door is because the foam is starting to come off the bottom of my blend door, and is starting to get stuck under it, making it a bit sticky to move, and it's likely to get worse. It just seemed easier to put in a new blend door while I had the entire firewall side plenum off, than trying to mess with gluing the old foam back onto the door, or trying to pull it all off and stick new foam on to make a good seal for nice hot heat and cold A/C. The junk truck that I took the firewall side HVAC housing off of had a really perfect looking blend door sitting right there, seemingly easily accessible, that tempted me.

Maybe it's not even possible, though. The weird thing is that the Ford shop manual says nothing about how to remove that blend door, even though from your photos, it looks like it's attached at the top the same way as the outside air intake door. That's why I was wondering if you can't get it out without also separating the bottom and top pieces of the heater plenum, even if you managed to pop out that red actuator piece without breaking it. There may just not be enough room to get it out. The parts list in my manual shows the blend door as part of the heater plenum, instead of having its own part number, which makes me suspicious that even if you successfully removed the red actuator, there wouldn't be room to get the door out.

I thought maybe when you cut the bottom of the heater plenum under the blend door, you might have been able to tell whether the door could have been maneuvered out in one piece if you had been able to get the red actuator out.

I haven't been able to find anything in this forum or others specifically talking about taking the blend door out by releasing that red tab on the actuator and pulling the door out through the opening in the firewall when you happen to have the whole firewall side of the HVAC plenum off for other reasons. Obviously, taking that whole plastic firewall side housing off is a much bigger job than just cutting the bottom of the heater plenum under the blend door, as you did, so if your aim is just to change a broken blend door, that's the way you'd do it. I have seen a lot of posts saying that the old blend door is still hard to get out, even when you cut that hole.

If anybody has taken the blend door out in one piece through the firewall opening, and put a new one in, without dismantling the heater plenum inside the truck or dropping the dash, I'd sure like to hear about it. It's really difficult to tell whether there's room to get it out that way, and none of my manuals has anything to say about it. I don't want to risk damaging the red actuator piece if it's geometrically impossible to get the door out that way.

- Alana

 

Boy, I really don't remember much room at all in there. Like the blend door was inserted then the whole thing melted together. There may be just a little bit of space to allow for operation but I suspect you would have to deform the case to get it out. Remember the red tab on mine and the top boss were broken on mine, and I still couldn't get it out without cutting the bottom out. I do recall on the replacement door, I popped out the red piece, got the door back in, then snapped the red piece back in last. I can see why the whole assy is listed as one piece.

Fixing the foam in place is probably easier, and I wonder how much it really does anyway?

 

Yeah, and in my truck, just the way the dash and heater plenum were assembled, there's less room above the heater core box than on most trucks. Not even sure if the red pin would come up and out without needing to be bent a little.

I suspect that since yours wouldn't come out even with the top busted off, there might be no room to get it out. It's weird how the fresh air door, which looks so similar, pops right out of the bottom socket once you unlatch the actuator arm at the top. No idea why they wouldn't have designed the blend door to be the same.

I guess I'll probably mess with the foam, "mess" being the key word. I think it's there mostly to keep the door from clunking or making rattling noises when plastic rubs against plastic, but it should also help to make a tighter seal. I live in a climate where it's ridiculously hot and humid in the summer, and quite cold in winter, so having a very good seal on that door is probably more important to me than most people.

The problem with glue, or adhesive on new foam, is what happens to it when it gets hot? It gets pretty warm next to that heater core. Don't want off-gassing of stinky chemicals when it bakes in the heat, or the glue losing adhesion and causing a worse problem. Will have to do some research.

 

These trucks are like an onion, built in layers or stages. Sometimes you've got to peel back the layers to that point in the assembly line to get to it. I'm not sure if you have seen this, but it might make the A/C more effective in the truck https://cpaddict.com/max-ac-assist-a...-f-series-max/

cheers, Ben

 

I've actually read about that mod. Will soon be moving to a more temperate climate, so probably don't need it. Thanks, though!