Small vacuum line and 2 odd valves

[ExploreHudson]

Pics attached.

1. What does this tiny broken vacuum line do other than disintegrate in my hand?

2. Why would one of the POs install these valves on the heater hoses? There was one on each, i just have a coolant flush tee installed in the photo.

Also.. not able to use the rear wiper.. no movement at all.

 

[Roadrunner777]

Someone has replaced the diverter valve with hand valves, and as you say, you replaced a valve with a flush tee. The vacuum line is part of the system that opens and closes the diverter valve.

So... if you had a diverter valve there, and the A/C was off, the valve would send hot coolant through the heater core. If the A/C was on, The coolant would get to the valve and sent right back to the engine, bypassing the heater core. The idea is to make the A/C colder by keeping the coolant out of the core.

Ok, the vacuum line is from the A/C control panel. If you set A/C or defrost, it operates the diverter valve, bypassing the heater core.

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All that said, I'm not a big fan of putting valves there. The engine is designed to have flow through these hoses. If I recall, the supply comes off the water pump, and if it cannot flow through these hoses, that's not good.

What you do from here depends on if your A/C is working, if you want heat at some point, depends on what your goal is for your Explorer.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...ay-climate-control-heater-valve/74809/4522534

 

[Roadrunner777]

Rear wiper - Fuse #17 in the interior fuse panel, it should be 15A. Could be that, could be wiring or a bad motor. Need more clues.

 

[ExploreHudson]

Weird because as is it does have both working ac and heat

 

[Centaurious]

That diverter valve is worth the money. My AC will get down to the lower 30 degrees after a while as indicated by a thermometer in the center vent.

 

[Roadrunner777]

There are 1st generation Explorers that do not have the diverter valve... Ford added at some point to assist cooling.

With your setup, if the hand valve is open, the heat will work great and the A/C will work ok. With it closed, the heat will not work, and the A/C will work great. I suppose that's why the OE installed valves instead of just splicing the hoses.

BUT... I personally wouldn't run with the valve closed. The engine is designed for coolant to flow through the heater core (or diverter valve if it's installed) and then on to some part of the engine. If the valve is closed, that part of the engine is deprived of coolant flow and that can lead to bad things.

At this point, with the heat and A/C working satisfactorily, you could just splice the vacuum line and forget about it all, or you could install a diverter valve and deal with the vacuum lines. It really depends on where you want to go with this. If it were my daily driver, I'd probably fix it all up. If it were my weekend trash hauler, I'd just run it the way it is. I wouldn't run it with the hand valve closed though, particularly in San Antonio, TX. You need all the engine cooling you can get!

 

[ExploreHudson]

Just finished my flush and boy o boy did I get some nasty stuff out of there. My gauge used to read just over the half way mark during heavy duty, ex towing, AC in traffic etc.

Now its holding strong at 11 o clock. When i first opened the radiator drain, nothing came out.. just a small trickle. When i started the flush, water was only coming out of the radiator cap really..

Now.. I have much more flow coming through the radiator drain, after a bunch of rust stuff shot out. No leaks that i can see. I think half the radiator was just clogged up and being bypassed

 

[ExploreHudson]

For the rear wiper..

I checked fuse 17.. its good and 15 A

I dont even get the sprayer to work. Does this switch light up like the defroster?

Looks like it might be wiring. Ill trace later.

 

[Roadrunner777]

Yes, the switch is illuminated.... but it' a different circuit for the lamp, so not really related.

On the coolant flush... yeah, it can sure get crusty. Even 11'oclock is a little warmer than normal, but then again, I'm in a cooler region. If you look at the gauge, my needle runs just above the 'N' in 'NORMAL'.

I won't be back on until at least Monday... best of luck!