Evaporator diverter Door

[Muncaster]

I have a 2002 Explorer XLS that has a problem that I have not seen on this site. There exits a moveable door in the evaporator housing that routes air from the temperature blend chamber to the appropriate duct. This door is controlled by the selector on the right hand side of the environmental control panel. This selector controls both Electric and Vacuum actions. The vacuum side of the connection has 4 lines attached to it. One is the supply line and the other three go to various vacuum actuators. The actuator that I am writing about is served by the Red vacuum line. This actuator is attached to the passenger side of the evaporator housing and controls the actuation of the diverter door. The part that has failed is the actuator is attached to the door lever. The lever on the door is plastic and the actuator rod is metal. This lever is specific to only the 2002 and early 2003 Hot/Cold variant models and has been discontinued from Ford. Does anybody make an aftermarket application for this lever or know where I can find a NOS part? Another option I might consider is to update the entire system with a late 2003 model that has all of Ford's re-engineering after they discovered the problems with the unit that is in my car.

 

[rrgone]

I have never heard that there are differences in any Gen 3 Explorers HVAC plumbing. Could be I suppose. AFAIK the plastic lever is part of the plastic door and not a seperate part. This link might help you with ideas how to make a fix:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249624

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

[Muncaster]

It does give me an Idea. I am going to remove the plenum and take some measurements. then plug it into autocad and design a lever that will go into the centering hole and replace the lever with one that has a stud for the actuator. I put a pic up when its done.

 

[rrgone]

Are you planning to pull the dash out for access? It's a pretty big job getting at the center air box. Take a lot of pics of the actuators and routing of hoses if you do pull the dash. This thread has a couple of good pics to give you an idea:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=369287

Again, good luck and let us know.

 

[BrentW]

I can tell you I had this exact problem with mine when I got it. Over the summer i put a zip tie on it to just hold it wide open and blow A/C out the vents, but now that it is cold I needed to fix it. I thought it was going to be a huge job, but turns out it was very simple. I found one at a salvage and was going to cut the thing off and see if I could attach it to mine but found that the plastic part only goes a inch or so into the box. it pops out with a little pressure. I used a box knife at the salvage to take apart the top of one of the boxes on a explorer out there but after seeing how it was put together I was able to get a hold of mine with pliers and pull it out. Popped the new one in place and attached the vacuum pot to it and all was well. Check your local pick a part. I found 3 or 4 of them here, but most of them were broken. The one I grabbed was in descent shape though except for the little guide that keeps the pot attached. Instead I used a little push on washer, the kind that will slide onto plastic but isnt able to come back off and used it to keep the pot on the arm. Hope that helps.

 

[Muncaster]

I can tell you I had this exact problem with mine when I got it. Over the summer i put a zip tie on it to just hold it wide open and blow A/C out the vents, but now that it is cold I needed to fix it. I thought it was going to be a huge job, but turns out it was very simple. I found one at a salvage and was going to cut the thing off and see if I could attach it to mine but found that the plastic part only goes a inch or so into the box. it pops out with a little pressure. I used a box knife at the salvage to take apart the top of one of the boxes on a explorer out there but after seeing how it was put together I was able to get a hold of mine with pliers and pull it out. Popped the new one in place and attached the vacuum pot to it and all was well. Check your local pick a part. I found 3 or 4 of them here, but most of them were broken. The one I grabbed was in descent shape though except for the little guide that keeps the pot attached. Instead I used a little push on washer, the kind that will slide onto plastic but isnt able to come back off and used it to keep the pot on the arm. Hope that helps.

That's Excellent news. I am going to look to see if anyone in the Denver area has one.

 

[BrentW]

The arm inside it attaches too is metel but basically the plastic part that is sticking out the door is only about 2 inches or so long and has a flat part that mates up to a slot on the arm inside. I just stumbled across it by dumb luck because I wanted to see how much of that arm I could get it in order to figure out how to attach it to mine and walla.. it comes out with a little tugging.