Help me get outside air into cabin! Too hot.

[CityW42]

I've had this 442 for a couple weeks and have fixed a lot of the small things that have needed repair but I'm in desperate need of finding a solution for my hot air problem.

The problem is, hot air is blowing into the car at all times. When driving fast, more air is coming in and it's very hot....so hot that the console where the air is blowing down is almost too hot to touch. I've run the controls on VENT and in OFF and regardless, it's brutally hot.

I reconnected a vacuum line to the water control valve and that seemed to help but not much.

I'd just like outside air to flow into the cabin.

What's not working properly and causing this problem? Is a flap not closing?

I can't drive this car anytime but in the evening when it's cold outside.

 

[pontiacgp]

it sounds like your water control valve isn't doing it's job. They are not expensive so I'd change that before I looked at anything else.

 

[Black Sheep]

Mine does the same thing and here's whats wrong with mine:

At the other end of your heater controls (the one that controls the 'cold/hot') is a bell crank attached to the flapper door. The pastic becomes brittle and breaks, rendering the control lever useless. The flapper then stays in the 'hot' mode all the time. Big pita to get to, behind the glove box, on top of the heater box.

I wedged a sock up there to keep the flapper shut :lol:

 

[robert56]

clamp off one of the heater hoses with a pair of vice grips. If that fixes it, it's probably the valve.

 

[CityW42]

Is it also possible that the vacuum isn't strong enough causing the valve not to work properly?

Some of the vacuum lines on this car need to be replaced.

Are their any diagrams available on how this system works?

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I can almost guarantee it is EXACTLY what Blacksheep mentioned above. It's a pain to fix it if your lucky it broke and left enough of a nub sticking out that you can grab it with a pair of pliers and pull it out.
It's tough to get out because it has small nubs that stick from the shaft that have to be aligned properly with slots to come out. It's similar to how a turn signal or tail light bulb twists in.

It's easy enough to check though. Look up under the dash on the passenger side in the area behind the radio/glove box. The cable that controls this is only maybe 6" long so it's about that far away to the passenger side of the dash. If you grab the end of the cable and it's loose with a piece of black plastic attached to it then you found the problem.

I drove an entire summer years ago having to put up with the heat before I finally started to fish around under the dash and found the problem.

 

[CityW42]

Hey guys,

I took out the glove box today and here's what I see.

I see a cable that runs from the heater control to a brass rod that's attached to the flap.

When I opened it, the black plastic piece was connected to the brass rod.

When the setting is set to COOL, the cable seems to be able to close the flap (push it forward) but when the VENT comes on, it immediately pushes the flap back despite it being set to COOL. If I hold the brass rod and push it in, the air remains cold.

So the question is, why is the flap unable to stay closed unless I'm holding it?

Here's some pictures...

 

[FE3X CLONE]

It's broke. You can tell in the second picture.

There should be a plastic "stud" that sticks down from the bottom of the black bell crank. The problem is that you have the rest of it stuck inside of your A/C and heater box that you need to get out before you can replace it with a new one.

 

[CityW42]

It's broke. You can tell in the second picture.

There should be a plastic "stud" that sticks down from the bottom of the black bell crank. The problem is that you have the rest of it stuck inside of your A/C and heater box that you need to get out before you can replace it with a new one.

I'm assuming I have to attack that from above, under the hood?

Where is that black crack supposed to be when operating correctly?

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I'm assuming I have to attack that from above, under the hood?

I did mine from under the dash laying on my back and using a pair of needle nose pliers to work the broken piece of plastic out of the box.

The only way you can get to this from the engine side would be to remove the entire HVAC system and pull it out of the car.

It would probably be easier to pull the dash before doing that.