How to: My take on the blend door fix for 95+ Explorers (several pics)

[Sid Daley]

Their is a guy in the Vancouver B.C.

That is actually a Ford transmission guy that works
out of a shop at his house, and one time when I was
over consulting him on my transmission I noticed he
had a 97X with the dash ripped out to replace the plenum and he told me he has done this job 2-3 times
and he charges $500-700 Cdn including the part.

What I noticed in relation to this post however is that
he is able to do this repair without removing the steering wheel assembly, simply by holding the dash
up and out of the way with some 2x4's..

If anyone is in the Lower Mainland area and is in need
of a cabable and reasonable transmission/blendoor guy
drop me a email and I'll give you his number.

Sid

 

[DasFrem]

Ok, new question to all of this.....
My exibits all the symtoms of a bad blend door, BUT if I go under the hood, there's a little vaccum actuated thing located right near the heater box that when the truck is off, the pluger is up, when the MAX A/C is on, the plunger is up, but if it's put on any other location, the plunger is down. If I zip tie the plunger up and put the vent on, it blows cool air and regular AC works again. IF I ziptie it halfway, it blows medium air.

Because of all this, I think my blend door might not be the answer, I swapped out the switches on the console (advantage to having a second truck to steal parts from). and that didn't do it. Could it just be a loose vacume somehwere? I've looked all over but can't find anything.

Any comments?

 

[TPLYNCH]

IT IS YOUR BLEND DOOR! The piece you are ziptiing is the heater control valve. That cuts off coolant flow to the heater core. MAX A/C activates that, which is why you have Cold Air in MAX no matter what position the temp dial is at. If you had tried to get heat with the plunger tied UP, you would not have it.... Sorry, but your blend door is stuck in the heat position!

 

[DasFrem]

Yay! Sucks for me! Thanks for clearing that up before I tore everything apart looking for some mysterious loose vacume hose.

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

Welp...I've been bitten by the blend door bug too. I told my parents that and they told me to live with it for a little while we can free up some cash. So...should I go ahead and let Ford look at it then do the arguing and stuff now or should I do it later?

 

[BIG COUNTRY]

i thought my blend door was messed up...cuz mine wouldnt want to heat up like it should...but i back tracked my steps and i forgot to plug in my harness behind the a/c temp control...

also...if you take your glove compartment down all the way...is that the blend door on the right side that only opens when the max a/c is on???

 

[DasFrem]

Nope, your blend door is within the box to the left of it.

 

[Red97EBV8]

This writeup doesn't indicate that anything needs to be done to the A/C system. I've read other places that the A/C system needs to be purged, and that the evaporator needs to be replaced. Does this really need to be done? I may be willing to tackle this myself if I don't have to tamper with the A/C system. Also, is there any difference in the procedure for the auto climate control version?

 

[vbtruk]

Ok guys i am going to order the part from Ford and fix the blend door. Could you please tell me what the part # is for the new blend door heater plenum?
Also i have a floor shift transmission so where are those screws that hold the centre console exactly so i can remove the floor shift as my Ford CD does not cover the right hand drive X's?
and in the engine bay do i need to remove the upper intake manifold and lower to undo those 3 screws. Thanks alot for all your help.

 

[vbtruk]

Part name

hey guys i can get the parts singular from Ford here without buying the whole plenum and it's much cheaper but i just need to knomw the acctual name of the plastic part that brakes and photo if possible as i might be able to fabricate one on the lathe at work. or just order it from Ford but they don't know which it is and i don't really want to pull it apart as it would take them a while to order it in and i need my car to go to work! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Guy's.

 

[vbtruk]

Anyone???

 

[Zulu95]

Don't forget: While the dash is all over the garage floor replace the heater core. It would be terrible to do all that work and have to pull it all out again come winter!

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

Guys, I've been lurking around FTE and found this free fix. From what I've read, a lot of people are pretty successful with the fix. Here's the link to the thread:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24962

And this is the page one of the members posted about the fix with detailed pics:

http://home.earthlink.net/~kandc1/ford/blenddoorfix.html

 

[vbtruk]

why would i need to replace the heater core?

 

[Zulu95]

71166322

I had my guy replace the core as it bacically requires all these parts to come out again if it goes. He has replaced more cores than blend doors. For $89 from Ford it seemed like a deal to me!
BTW I was charged $400 for labor for doing this project.

 

[jjue]

I didn't flush the AC system because I didn't have equipment to do it, plus I was able to just move AC components around to get to all the nuts and bolts.

 

[Red97EBV8]

I have decided to make a try at replacing my plenum myself and save $1000 or so. Somewhere in the middle of this thread someone posted the part number for the plenum for a manual control. I have the autoclimate system. Does anyone have the part number for my 97 EB? Are they the same?

 

[vbtruk]

Guy's great news i can order the part here in AUS for $4.50 the shaft that brakes off right!!! So you won't need to pay $300.00 + for a whole new plenum chamber or have to rip out the whole dash. It's this easy dissconnect your battery, then pull out your glove box and passenger air bag, pull out the blend door motor and take the shaft off it then replace with this new one. I hope it really is that easy i will be doing it this weekend so i'll let you know then.

 

[vbtruk]

............

 

[Zulu95]

Could be wrong!! But I think that part fits into the part that breaks?? I was shown my old plenum and the broken part looked nothing like that. It was a while ago so....