Vent switch not working

[Harris Tweed]

Thanks in advance for any help.

My 2005 Explorer will no longer allow me to select where the vents blow air to. The dial turns, but doesn't seem to actually change anything (or not consistently, that is). It's stuck on mostly top vent, a tiny bit of defrost, no floor. It's mostly a problem because of fogging.

Short of taking the dashboard off, which I don't have the time to do right now, does anyone have a suggestion on where to start? Thanks.

 

[ROBinGa]

Tons of posts here about this problem. I had it as did others. Search for your symptoms and you will find articles and pictures. I bet if you release your glove box door so you can see in behind it and towards center of guts of the dash, you are going to find your actuator arm has broken off the plastic tab that controls the flow of air between defrost and vents. I had to fabricate a connection with piece of metal but you may find a zip tie might solve yours. Hopefully this is your problem and not something else

 

[ROBinGa]

Try this one as a start
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/blend-door-or-vacuum-line.323586/

 

[ROBinGa]

And this one

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/no-airflow-from-dash-vents.249624/

 

[Harris Tweed]

Thanks a lot. I did a search and found something similar, but all the pages that the article linked to were broken. I'll look in the glove box.

 

[Harris Tweed]

That was it, ROBinGa, thank you very much for your help and for that link.

In my case, the entire arm wasn't broken, just the (I assume) pin that attached the plastic arm (controlling the defroster vents) to the metal arm (from the vacuum thing). As far as I could tell, the pin was plastic, which seems like a lousy idea for something like this. Either by design or by defect, when you adjust the mixture on the knob, that metal arm pushes much further than the plastic arm wants to go, putting a lot of pressure on the connecting pin. When I lined the two arms up by hand I really had to use a lot of hand strength to keep them aligned.

Anyhow, despite the really tight access and difficult lighting, I was able to drill a hole in the plastic arm where the pin had once been, then I tapped it out to accept an 8-32 machine screw I had handy. That part was relatively easy. Lining up the holes (like I wrote above) was really difficult, then simultaneously getting a screw and screwdriver in was even harder. Ultimately, I had to tape the screw to the screwdriver before getting it in there and screwing it in. In retrospect, a sheet metal screw might have been easier to do, and the sharp threads probably wouldn't have mattered to the metal arm that pivots around it.

I tried to take pictures, but getting the camera to focus past the intervening wires and crap, and on the actual problem, was impossible.

 

[ROBinGa]

Glad that worked for you! Hopefully the end that you drilled will have enough meat to keep working but if it breaks again like mine did you know where and what is wrong. Isn't it nice to have selectable airflow again?